Elizabeth woke up to the particular quality of silence that meant the household was awake but not yet fully in motion, the kind of quiet that existed in the window between the first person rising and the rest of the house catching up.
She lay still for a moment before she opened her eyes.
The ceiling of her first bedroom was different from her ceiling at home. The light came from a different angle.
The weight of the blanket was heavier than her own.
She turned her head and looked at the room.
'He's not here...'
'Even after what he did to me last night...'
Empty. The room was now empty, which was how it would appear to anyone entering this morning, and it was exactly as it should be.
She sat up and immediately registered that she had slept without her clothes, which had not been her plan when she sat down on the bed with the ledger last night. The ledger was closed on the side table.
She did not specifically remember closing it.
