Even if he could find an excuse to leave, she was blocking his escape. The bar was shaped like an L, with that right angle off to his side. There the squirrel sat, looking suddenly...cheeky. As if he was about to laugh at the tension which Vedette didn't seem to notice.
Ithacles had to breathe eventually so he shifted the pipe, took it out of his mouth, and tried to blow the smoke away from the woman's face. He couldn't remember feeling so completely out of place in front of a woman and was starting to think himself a complete amateur. He imagined Leir sitting right beside the squirrel, mouth agape in astonishment. The Prince of Faustben was being pinned against a wall by a woman...
Of course she was nothing ordinary. No one looked quite like her. And she touched his arm.