"Thank you," she said, smiling so that the color rose in her cheeks. Not a difficult thing to do, given her vessel's coloring. "But being pretty isn't always a blessing, if you know what I mean."
That didn't really tell him much, only hinted. "I just came out of an abusive relationship," she said, which was true enough. She'd been involved in several--some of which she had been the abuser as well as the abused. "You wouldn't know to look at me, but my life has been hell, lately."