Owl's blood went cold, and for a second she froze as her heart must have stopped. Her stomach did queasy flip-flops as Raizel uttered the dreaded, I know. Eyes going wide, she stared up at the woman, then flicked a look nervously toward the whores--but they were too distracted to be listening in, and the place was loud and rowdy, besides. Still, she couldn't help that moment of terror when she thought, oh gods, she was about to be outed and maybe she didn't do such a good job pretending as she thought she did and what if Raizel figured out she was nobility and and and--!
And then Raizel reassured her, and she let her breath out in a soft whoosh and pressed a hand to her chest.
"Dear Kia, you nearly gave me a heart attack," she whispered, and let out a weak, uneasy laugh. "Jeez! Whew. Alright. Um, so...it's really not that obvious, right? It's just a 'woman's intuition' thing here, right? Woman to woman? 'Cause, er..."
She lowered her voice and leaned in closer. "People really can't know...you know?"