Candy Arkell

"I gasped, spun around, and adjusted my dress, and then I just stood there, praying he’d leave, or I’d disappear, or something would catch fire, and we’d both be distracted and forget this had ever happened. But of course there’s never a real emergency when you want one, so I pulled myself together, trying to pretend I was composed like Mama, which was impossible really, because Mama would never have been caught half-dressed—twice!—by anyone, so there was really no basis for comparison."
Because of a Ring, 229 (or thereabout)