“Just a rat, she repeated to herself. After all, there were rats in the palace. Human and otherwise. Could be worse.”

“Ellen could have killed me," Jack said quietly, "but she didn't. She saved my life.""How come?" Fitch demanded. "After all this?"Ellen turned scarlet and stared at the ground. "Maybe none of my opponents ever gave me flowers before," she mumbled.”

“A moment later, Cat hurtled back into the room as if chased by demons. She stationed herself in front of Raisa, a knife in either hand, all of her genteel patina swept away. "Cuffs! Look sharp! It's him, the whey-faced, gutter-swiving, prig-napping bastard! He's here!"Han looked as mystified as Raisa. "Who's here?”

“She could Captain to his Your Majesty any time.”

“She could hear the rattle of hooves on stone evolve into a thunder of pursuit.”

“Ellen rose to her feet. Jack thought for a moment she was going to storm out. Instead, she picked up the pitcher of hot fudge and poured the contents onto Leesha Middleton's pink jeans and fuzzy white sweater."Oops." Ellen sat down again and went back to eating her ice cream.Leesha screamed, a sound that could be heard in Canada. Every eye in Corcoran's was on her. She slid out of the booth and swiped ineffectually at her jeans with a napkin.Then she plucked at her ruined sweater with her thumb and forefinger. "You...you...I can't believe you did that!"Ellen licked whipped cream from the back of her spoon and looked at Leesha calmly.Leesha was tiny, but she seemed to expand, like an amphibian taking on air, then she drew herself up and retrieved her pink leather purse from the bench next to Jack. It was smeared with fudge too. "You'll pay for that, I promise you," she said to Ellen in a voice that raised the gooseflesh on Jack's neck. Then she turned and left.For a moment, Corcoran's was totally silent.Ellen looked across the table at Jack's sundae. "Are you going to finish that?”

“And, like a fool, she kissed him back. Kissed him a way that would leave no doubt about the way she felt about him. Kissed him because she knew the chances were slim she'd have very many kisses like that in her lifetime. Which is a sad thing when you're only seventeen.”