She 'braced herself' with one hand and reached up with the other.
We need to add some sort of 'brace' to hold the shelf in place.
several 'brace' [=(more commonly) 'pairs'] of quail
(..) They are tender. They are nice. Yes, they are. Eat them. Eat them! You'll make him sick, you will... ...behaving like that. There's only one way to eat a brace of coneys. What's it doing? Stupid, fat Hobbit. It ruins it. What's to ruin? There's hardly any meat on them. (..)2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers