Casey awoke, laying in the large, four-poster bed, to a dark room. She’d gotten used to the idea that she would only see sunlight in fleeting glimpses as it rose or fell, and she was certainly used to the idea of never being woken up by the sun again.

She rolled over and felt the other side of the bed to find it empty.

‘I guess Lavinia is already up,’ she thought, fighting off the exhaustion that threatened to drag her back into ...