Well, that's not cryptic at all, she managed to keep herself from blurting out. But she hadn't asked the question in a specific way, so she probably shouldn't have expected a specific answer.
It was a little like picking a lock. Jiggle things around, and eventually, something came loose, but sometimes, it wasn't what you wanted. You just had to keep trying; every lock sprung eventually.
Everyone joked that she was terrible at patience, but she was rather good at locks.
Valuable was an interesting word choice. She considered it as she took another tiny sip of her tea. She still had over half the cup to go, so he could feel free to keep helping himself. "I won't ask whether she knows that you are watching her; I suspect the answer is yes," she mused. Fortunately, there were still two questions left on the table; if he had to choose from them, perhaps he would get to the third eventually, though it seemed just as likely that he would finish this cup of tea and refuse to have another. "If you prefer not to answer the questions already posed, please feel free to answer one I have not asked, provided it is pertinent to the topic at hand."