guarded

If I read the room right, there was a genuine, if somewhat guarded, sense of optimism from a welcoming crowd.

"Free speech is a British value - we've guarded it for centuries. But if you incite racist violence and hatred, that's not expressing concern - it's criminal."

Beijing has been much more guarded than Washington.

Amid all the buzz of the show, secrets are tightly guarded and with the finale about to drop we are not allowed to ask Brown what happens in it.

One man testified that workers were not allowed to leave the heavily guarded factory premises, even to buy food, which he described as dirty and unsuitable for human beings.