Exhaustion accompanied Kit to the morning meal and promised to stay with her for the rest of the day. By the time she’d finally fallen asleep, the sun was coming up, the first rays of light spilling in beneath and between her curtains, and it seemed like only moments later Avinia was urging her to climb from under her blankets and start the day.

Any idea of protesting had morphed into something else when Kit remembered what she had witnessed the night before. A rush of panic and repugnance overtook her, and Kit had sprung from her bed so rapidly, Avinia had asked if she was well.

“No, I’m not,”...