Lizzie and Frances were twins. They had all the conspiratorial closeness of twins, together forming part of a unit, a joint wholeness-or at least that was the way Lizzie saw it. Lizzie was the one who had everything, husband, children, a flourishing business, and the most beautiful house in Langworth. Frances had a solitary life in London, running her own small travel firm, and progressing through a sequence pf unsatisfactory men. Lizzie felt sorry for Frances and worried about her, but still she thought that everything was - vaguely - all right as long as Frances could share in her complete and unsatisfying life.
The Frances, suddenly and surprisingly, announced that she wasn't coming home to Lizzie for Christmas. She was going away, to Spain. Lizzie's world began to tilt. She had always known that Frances kept a small part of herself separate but her Christmas defection seemed overwhelmingly threatening to their unity. - from Amzon