– by selling people what they needed.’

The door to the study opened and a young woman I’d seen downstairs came in. She was composed and graceful, with a step that was both regal and efficient. Her cap was simple – almost like a servant’s – but it accentuated her refined features. She was a rarefied version of the girl I had found in the park. Her hair was a more subtle golden shade, and her curls fell naturally in soft ringlets. Her eyelashes were as thick but longer, framing blue eyes with just a touch of grey in them. Her cheekbones were a trifle higher and her expressions more subdued.

My human appreciation of her beauty fought with my vampire’s cold appraisal of her body: healthy and young.

‘The doctor has just arrived, but Mama thinks she will be fine,’ the girl said calmly. ‘The wound is not as deep as it first seemed, and appears to be mending itself already. It is by all accounts a miracle’.

I shifted in my chair, knowing that I had been the reluctant source of that ‘miracle.’

‘My daughter Lydia,’ Winfield introduced. ‘The most queenly of my three graces. That was Bridget whom you found. She’s a bit…ah…tempestuous.’

‘She ran off by herself from a ball,’ Lydia said through a forced smile. ‘I think you might be looking for a slightly stronger word than “tempestuous”, Papa.’

I liked Lydia immediately. She had none of the joie de vivre that Callie had, but she possessed an intelligence and sense of humour that became her. I even liked her father, despite his huff and bluster. In a way, this reminded me of my own home, of my own family, back when I had one.

‘You have done us a great service, Stefan,’ Winfield said. ‘And forgive me if I’m speaking out of turn, but I suspect that you don’t have a proper home to return to. Why don’t you stay the night here? It is too late for you to go anywhere, and you must be exhausted.’