diff -up expect5.45.4/expect.c.tcl9-eval expect5.45.4/expect.c
--- expect5.45.4/expect.c.tcl9-eval	2026-01-19 11:30:58.662069055 +0100
+++ expect5.45.4/expect.c	2026-01-19 11:30:58.663720515 +0100
@@ -325,15 +325,16 @@ exp_eval_with_one_arg(
 		 numWords--, tokenPtr += (tokenPtr->numComponents + 1)) {
 		/* FUTURE: Save token information, do substitution later */
 
-		Tcl_Obj* w = Tcl_EvalTokens(interp, tokenPtr+1,
+		Tcl_Obj* w;
+		int code = Tcl_EvalTokensStandard(interp, tokenPtr+1,
 			tokenPtr->numComponents);
-		/* w has refCount 1 here, if not NULL */
-		if (w == NULL) {
+		if (code != TCL_OK) {
 		    Tcl_DecrRefCount (res);
 		    res = NULL;
 		    goto done;
-
 		}
+		w = Tcl_GetObjResult(interp);
+		Tcl_IncrRefCount(w);
 		Tcl_ListObjAppendElement (interp, res, w);
 		Tcl_DecrRefCount (w); /* Local reference goes away */
 	    }