<blockquote>She had not taken her hand from his throat. Harriet, as an author of detective fiction, had given no small amount of thought in her life to the properties of the human jugular. Even before her wretched time in Wilvercombe, she could have explained exactly where to cut to deprive a man of his life’s blood. She traced that path now with the edge of one fingernail. Peter’s eyes did not leave hers, and he did not move an inch, holding himself utterly defenseless. Harriet was the one who swallowed.</blockquote>
