She stared ahead as he worked, gaze focused on some interminable spot just over the heads of the whirling dancers.

"If anyone I knew could see me now..." she murmured, half-amused, half-embarrassed.

Roth would be swinging away... Sam... Sam would probably be cheering her on.

But then the corset loosened and her aching ribs expanded and she was too busy taking her first full, glorious breath, in over an hour to worry about it.

"Oh my God," she breathed, gasping for the sheer pleasure of breathing. "Thank you."