‘No dwarf would hurt her!’ Dreamy exclaimed. ‘We love the princess. Your Majesty knows that. But we haven’t seen her for days. We thought perhaps she was caught up in business at the castle, and we’re no longer allowed in the castle . . . so . . .’ He let the sentence drift off to a natural end. It was this queen who had banished them, after all.

‘Please,’ he dropped his bag and ran to the cottage door, pulling it open – he hoped not too dramatically. ‘Search our house. Please. Dwarf honour is at stake. Search the house and then I will help you hunt for her anywhere you ask. As will my brothers.’

She stared at him for a long moment and his heart was in his mouth. If they did search the cottage then Snow White’s breeches would be found and they would be done for. But if he hadn’t offered this woman would have insisted. It was a dangerous bluff, but it was also all he had.

‘You’ve heard none of the other dwarves talking about her?’ the queen asked.

‘No, your Majesty. But I will listen harder, I promise you.’

‘Make sure you do. My ravens will travel further into the forest soon.’ She looked at the trees around them as if they were an army standing against her. ‘Then we’ll find her, however well she’s hidden.’

Dreamy said nothing, not sure he could trust himself to speak, but the queen was lost in her own thoughts.

‘I just need to know,’ she said softly, to the trees and the breeze perhaps, but not to man or dwarf. ‘I’ll go mad if I never know.’

She turned and walked back along the new path to her carriage and after a second or two snapped her fingers. The Queen’s Guard gave Dreamy one more suspicious glare and then followed her. The trees and bushes were already knotting themselves back together and the dwarf was pleased to hear one small exclamation of pain as a bramble caught on a passing soldier’s cheek.

‘To the next one!’ The queen commanded, her voice carrying easily to the clearing. ‘And then to the mines.’