Prologue Once Upon a Time …
… the princess gained herself a little shadow. Her brother, Andrei, appeared every morning when she started her lessons with the new tutor—her cousin, Stefan, had bullied the old one out of a job when he’d seen how badly he had treated Andrei.
Andrei sat beside her, often joining in lessons meant for children much older than himself.
The maid charged with his supervision left him for the day, knowing that the princess was more than capable of caring for him. His meltdowns became fewer, although the ones that still happened were extreme, and only the princess could calm him.
The princess resumed her evening trips to the swimming pool, and Andrei followed. He refused to set foot in the water, though, his eyes wide and terrified.
“I was the same before Stefan showed me how to swim,” she cajoled him, pushing away from the edge and swimming a length before returning to him.
She’d been watching videos of competitive swimming on the internet and had been practising her freestyle stroke, and she wanted to show her newfound skill off.
Her brother was unimpressed. He glared at the water with mistrust. If some splashed him, he screeched and flapped and she couldn’t go near him to help until she was completely dry, because more water would only make his fit worse.
“How do you wash yourself if you hate water so much?” she asked him.
“I can’t drown in a shower,” he explained, as if she was rather stupid for not having realised this in the first place.
She wondered if she should tell him, this little, six-year-old boy, that she’d almost drowned once, and look at her now.
That he could be a swimmer, just like her, and wouldn’t have to worry about the water hurting him.
But she decided that might only frighten him more.
It was a decision she would never forgive herself for … and the regret began with a new dress …