Mary Gowd, with her frumpy English hat and her dreadful English fringe, and her brick-red English cheeks, which not even the enervating Italian sun, the years of bad Italian food or the damp and dim little Roman room had been able to sallow.

Broken Arrow refers to the U.S. military's code word used during the Vietnam War. This call was used only in the direst of tactical situations, when a ground unit was overrun by enemy forces. When Broken Arrow was heard on the radio nets, all available aircraft were diverted to provide close air support for the endangered command.

Christ commeth not bare or naked, but clothed and accompanied with all his mercies.

I had never been an impressionable girl as far as men were concerned—I was not an impressionable woman.