“Oh. Oh dear.” Miss Mason blinked. “I’m so sorry, but those girls on the front porch sleep here now at night. When we heard your mother was living with you, we thought she didn’t need a bed anymore. And there are so many others in need.”

Chapter 37

The evening was pleasant, cool but not windy. Rather than hail a rickshaw, Shao walked. Sparrow had gone to the flat ahead of him, to help Lian and her mother with the cooking. He strolled up Rue Joffre, not minding its congested sidewalks. Restaurants were lively with diners and music, touts beside nightclub entrances called out to Shao. In his neatly pressed wool slacks and silk tie, a new cashmere coat, he looked exactly like what he was, a princeling, one of Shanghai society’s elite.

He’d meant to see Lian more often but he didn’t know what to make of her anymore. It was as though she didn’t want him around. Perhaps he just needed to wait until she and her mother had spent more time together. And then . . . and then what?

Anyway, his social life wasn’t suffering. When word got around that Shao was back in Shanghai, he’d been invited to round after round of parties. Sammy Chung, never seen without a bowler on his head, was especially insistent. Resplendent in flannel suit and loud paisley tie, Sammy had pulled a card out of his wallet and jotted down the date and time of a party at the Majestic Hotel.

“This weekend, the biggest party of the season,” Sammy said, pressing the card into Shao’s hands. “For men only, if you catch my meaning. A little gambling, good dance music. Pretty hostesses, a few foreign ones. Russians. Promise you’ll come. We all want to hear about your adventures.”

Shao knew these weren’t his friends, not really. They had no interest in listening to his tales of life on the road, didn’t want to know what he’d seen of rural China. Before the war, Sammy and his friends had fluttered at the periphery of his and Pao’s circle. Pao had dismissed them as shallow. But Pao wasn’t in Shanghai anymore and neither was the rest of the Zhu family. The day after he arrived home, Shao had gone across the street to pay his respects. But the gatekeeper told him the Zhus had left Shanghai and moved south, to their summer home in Kunming. Pao had transferred to the University of Hong Kong and now lived there. Sammy and his friends merely filled a vacancy.

Sparrow didn’t hide her dislike of Sammy. “Mr. Chung is a waste of your time, Young Master,” she said.

“I have nothing but time these days,” he snapped, annoyed that Sparrow would judge his choice of friends.