“The secret is not just to be stunning, which I find comes rather easily, to be honest. The tricky thing is getting exactly the right level of stun for the occasion.”

“Let me through – I’m a doctor.’ My heart beat a little faster, and I lingered just long enough to be sure he’d used the indefinite article. But the man was short and bald and rather ugly – not at all like any Doctor I’d consult. I hope. If ‘consult’ is the right word.”

“Just a quick glimpse to assure myself that everything was buttoned and unbuttoned in the best places and pointing in the right direction.”

“I sat with my feet up on my desk and started to make a mental list of the people who’d want me dead. Once I got to fifty, I decided this wasn’t helping.”

“I raised an alluring eyebrow. Alluringly.”

“I don’t often need rescuing, but it’s nice when it goes well and doesn’t involve great heights.”

“Everything about me is pretty and a lot of it is shrewd. So I had a pretty shrewd idea what was going on.”