‘That is, after all, the only thing some people desire, isn’t it?’ His dark eyes watched her carefully. ‘To be happy?’

She stared at him, trying to read something in his cold, dead eyes. ‘Well, then they are fools,’ she said eventually and then snapped her fingers and said the word and enjoyed the moment of pain and anger that flashed across his face as the tarnished lamp on the table sucked him back in through the spout.

She looked at the comb again. Happiness. For a moment she was almost tempted to slide it into her blonde hair, but instead she put it in the glass cabinet, before carefully placing the lamp beside it. False happiness was probably no happiness at all.

Snow White was barely breathing when Grouchy and Dreamy found her. Her face was pale and her horse was whinnying and pawing at the ground in distress beside her.

‘Can’t . . . breathe . . .’ she finally whispered, her lips almost blue and her violet eyes watery with fear. Dreamy stared at her in horror. Had the horse thrown her? Had she fallen? ‘My . . . dress . . .’

‘Quickly!’ Grouchy snapped. ‘Get your knife!’ He was already rolling the limp girl over and pulling at the cords tied so tightly at her back. Dreamy, with trembling hands, scrabbled at his belt, pulling the small blade free and almost dropping it before Grouchy snatched it away from him, forcing the blade under the rough thick strings and tearing through them. One by one they broke, and Snow White’s breath came deep and fast and desperate as she sucked the air into her starved lungs. She coughed and sat up, the dress gaping open at the back to reveal purple bruises in lines across her pale back. Her whole body trembled and she struggled to her feet.

‘No,’ Dreamy said. ‘Sit down.’

‘It’s fine,’ Snow White said, the words more wheeze than sound. ‘Really, I’m . . .’

And with that, she fainted.

The queen knew what they were saying about her. That she’d known Snow White would go riding, if only to spite her, and she’d laced the stays too tight on purpose. That she’d known the exertion would suffocate the princess and she’d die in the forest somewhere.