“Well, then,” Leslie said. “If Corwith and Kong Ruiji won’t help, you must appeal to a higher authority.” He donned a white cap, lit an incense stick, and summoned his divine entities.

With Lulu prattling in her lap, Nola watched his ritual. She envied his religious convictions. Even if he created a potpourri of beliefs, plucking practices from every religion that blew along his path, he had a spiritual life that eluded her. All she had was herself.

“I don’t want to be away from you all day tomorrow,” she told Lulu. “You’ll come along to the Great Wall and take naps in the trailer. Okay?” Shipped from a rental company in Japan for the Double Happiness tour, the trailer was a reduced version of the one Nola owned in the States. At fifty feet long, with its split-level space divided into sleeping and living quarters, it was plush and comfortable enough.

“You’re up for another tantrum from Jean-Claude,” Leslie said. “It’s not a bad idea to minimize conflicts with Wade, too.”

“If he weren’t married to me, he wouldn’t have dared oppose me.”

Leslie gazed back at her. “You’ll have to wake Lulu up before dawn to drag her out. And with my staff coming and going in the trailer, it would be difficult for her. She wasn’t a happy camper at the market video shoot.”

So Lulu was in Leslie's way, too. At least he was diplomatic about it. For now. Nola sighed. “I guess she shouldn’t be the one to make the sacrifices for my schedules. How does Faith Hill do it with three babies?”

“Nannies,” he replied. “The maid will watch her tomorrow.”

Wade appeared at the door at seven-thirty, dressed in his paisley silk robe. She stiffened. His face was masked by a pleasant expression as he reminded Nola that she would have only a few hours of sleep before the Great Wall shoot. “Honey, dinner is ready for you,” he added.

She stepped to the dining room and sat down. The light from the alabaster chandelier did not illuminate the corners of the room, and the silver bowls and gold-plated flatware seemed like a charade. Nola ignored the sleeping pill by her plate. After a few bites, she pushed herself away from the table and, pulled by invisible strings, went back to Lulu, now nestled in the room past the wardrobe. They were running out of time.

Lulu was intent on learning to sit up. She twisted on all fours and dropped her body sideways. Time and again, she pushed herself up, but her body tilted too far, or her foot flailed in the air, knocking her off balance. Finally exhausted, she lay back and held a clean cloth diaper next to her face while sucking on her pacifier. She listened to Nola sing a lullaby and her eyelids became heavy, then they closed. There was a smile on her twin-cherry lips.