“Why is the third hand on a watch called a second hand?”

“Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.”

“Derek was telling her something about a hand in a box. It was a dead hand. Why the hell did he have to bring it to me right this second? Was it going anywhere?”

“It's why she's always switching coaches, and it's why she'd rather get third instead of second. When she gets third, at least she's happy to have placed. But second. That's too close to first.”

“Perhaps second-hand cares, like second-hand clothes, come easily off and on.”

“Damned woman. Ever since she’d dropped into hisarms last night, he’d been tied in knots. On one hand, desire gripped him. On the other, the need to turn her over his knee until she admitted it was the same for her rode him. On the third hand, if he had a third hand, lay the question of who shewas. Why had he never seen her out insociety? But more important, why was heso conflicted over this rude, irritatinggirl? Hell, that was like five hands. He’dhave to be Kali to decipher his responseto Liliana Claremont.Geoffrey Wentworth, Earl of Stratford”