Lilla's Feast by Frances Osborne

Author:Frances Osborne [Osborne,Frances]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780307431394
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2004-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

Toby and his “wives,” Chefoo, 1928. Lilla is on the left.

The waterfront, Shanghai

As Toby was saluted into the Shanghai harbor on the prow of a battleship, Ada and her two children, Alan and Betty, left England to join him. Lilla raced to catch up. She wasn’t going to let Ada go back to China without her. Not when she was traveling in such glory, with Toby at her side. By the time Ada and Toby arrived in Chefoo for a visit, Ada’s photographs show Lilla already there and with a brand-new man on her arm. She’d met him through her eldest brother Vivvy, and his name was Ernest Casey. He was one of the richest businessmen living in Chefoo and “a sweet old thing.” He was unmarried, had no children and no relatives to look down on Lilla. In any case, he was far from grand. He wasn’t even second- or third-generation treaty port. He’d simply pitched up out of nowhere and made his fortune himself.

Casey—everyone called him that—was smitten. Lilla dragged him around with Ada and Toby, naughtily flirting with both men as if to show that she could keep up with Ada and have a husband, even Ada’s husband, too. Toby took the bait and put an arm around each twin and called them “my wives,” raising a few eyebrows. Ada stood there, buttoned up in a double-breasted jacket that resembled an ill-fitting uniform, looking uncomfortable with her twin’s more open sexuality.

Casey asked Lilla to marry him. Lilla said maybe. And added him to her list of pen pals as she turned on her heels and left.

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