Author's Note: Second chapter! Do enjoy. Reviews rock!

---

Chapter Two

In Which Charmain Has a Swimming Lesson

---

"Did I ever mention how much I hate you?" asked Charmain crossly, gingerly holding a bathing costume at arm's length.

"Yes, many times," said Peter, next to her in the dress shop at Market Square. "But you need to learn to swim, and Wizard Noland agrees with me. You're not wriggling out of it." He took the costume from her and held it to the light. "No, don't get a white one. Get something in a darker colour."

"But I like white!" she insisted. "It's ladylike!"

He snorted. "Is it ladylike for your swimming costume to go transparent in the water? If it is, then, by all means, get one in white."

Charmain stuck her nose in the air. "Beast."

Peter attempted to look virtuous, but merely managed to look smug. "It's beastly to try and save you from embarrassment? I do apologise, then, I shan't do it again." He sorted through the rack of costumes. "Here, what about this one?"

The one he had selected was green with bright yellow stripes. Charmain nodded mild approval and stepped into the dressing room. "It's indecent!" she cried, trying it on. "It's far too tight, and the skirt doesn't even cover my knees properly! I absolutely refuse to buy it."

One hour later, the two of them were standing by Wizard Norland's swimming pool. Charmain was sulkily dressed in the green-and-yellow bathing costume, and Peter was similarly attired in red.

Charmain tentatively dipped a toe into the water. "It's cold!" she said. "I can't swim in this! Can't we wait until it's warmer?"

Peter looked at her with utter disgust. "Just like a girl!" He took a few steps back, ran to the edge and leaped in. Charmain was splashed, head-to-toe, with water.

"Oh!" she screamed. "Oh! You- you-" She didn't seem to be able to think of a strong enough insult. "You idiot! I'm all wet!"

Peter, treading water, shook his sopping hair out of his face. "That's the idea. I believe that is why you are wearing a bathing costume as opposed to your regular clothes." He grinned at her. "Come on! It feels warmer once you get in. There are steps over there, anyway." He gestured to his left.

Charmain glared at him, then, with the terrified air of an amateur tightrope walker trying to balance on a string above a pit of lions, took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Everything was blue and light and bubbles and a sudden flash of Peter's shocked face. Charmain squeezed her eyes shut. She sank.

Suddenly, she landed on the stone floor of the pool, and somehow managed to sit down. She squinted up. The sky seems an awfully long way away, she thought. She closed her eyes again. She didn't know how to get back up. Did she push with her legs like the time she'd flown away from the lubbock? She tried.

She shot backwards about a metre.

Looking up, she could see Peter, as wobbling and blurry as if she was watching him through a piece of old glass. He was swimming towards her.

"Oh, hello Peter," she said, bubbles streaming from her mouth. "You took your time." She attempted to breathe, and swallowed a large amount of water.

He grabbed her, roughly, under the armpits, and dragged her towards the sunlight.

Charmain closed her eyes and flopped, fainting, on his shoulder.

She only came back to herself properly when she was dropped inelegantly on the stones by the pool. Someone – Peter? – rolled her onto her side, and she almost immediately vomited up an enormous amount of water, along with most of her lunch.

"Urrrrrgh! Char-main!"

Charmain, opening her eyes, found that she had thrown up onto Peter's neat red bathing costume. She was inordinately pleased with herself.

"You did that on purpose, you little ratbag!"

"No, I didn't," she said. "I wish I had. You almost killed me!" She sat up and glared at him, almost as well as he was glaring at her.

"I almost killed you? If I hadn't been there, you would have drowned!"

"If you hadn't been there, I wouldn't have tried to swim in the first place!"

"You call that trying to swim?" Peter said incredulously. "More like trying to kill yourself!"

"Well, I'm sorry!" Charmain said, entirely unapologetically. "I didn't ask for swimming lessons!"

"No, but you need them! I lived in the highlands of Montalbino, and even I learned to swim! I won't always be there to save your neck, you know."

"It's not my fault!" shouted Charmain. "I wasn't allowed to learn! It's not – respectable!"

"Respectable! Everything has to be respectable with you, doesn't it?"

"It's not me, it's my mother! You should know what that's like!"

"Well, no, I don't, because my mother wanted me to stay alive, not die the first time I had to swim!"

"Argh!" said Charmain, entirely tired of this. "I am going to go inside, get changed, and read a book. And if you know what's good for you," she said, glowering at Peter, "you won't try to stop me."

"Fine then, I shan't!" Peter rolled his eyes. "Reading, reading, reading, that's all you do!"

"Better than some people," said Charmain daringly. "At least I can find my way around without needing strings tied to my hand."

"Oho!" said Peter. "You're just a lazy, vicious little girl who gets her jollies from trying to hurt people and tries to hide behind her upbringing. Well, you - don't - fool - me!"

"I am not a little girl!" said Charmain crossly. "I am as old as you are, and don't you forget it!"

"Well, you're acting like one! 'Oh, poor me, my mummy and daddy wouldn't let me go swimming, boo hoo,'" said Peter in a cruelly accurate imitation of Charmain's voice. "Poor diddums!"

Charmain, her righteous indignation fully aroused, shoved him in the pool, gleefully listening to his spluttering. "And that's for mimicking me!" She stuck her nose in the air and walked to one of the reclining chairs, retrieving the cheap paperback novel that she had secreted under it. She lay down and flicked the book open, apparently ignoring Peter's colourful swearing (although actually trying to memorise the phrases for later usage).

A splash told her that Peter had gotten out of the pool. He walked towards her, and she tried to bury herself deeper in her book.

"Oh, come on, Charmain," he said, sounding much friendlier. "I know you're not reading that; it's upside-down. Put it down."

Startled, Charmain looked at the book. Indeed, the writing was all the wrong way up, as – when she flipped the book around to look at the cover – were the boy and girl on the front. She slipped the book onto the next chair.

Peter grinned at her, and, ignoring her protests, picked her up bodily and sat her on one of the deeper pool steps.

Charmain squeaked. "Let me go!"

Peter, holding both her wrists in one hand, ignored her. "I should've told you not to jump into the deep end. Now, come on, I should at least teach you how not to drown until someone can rescue you."

Charmain, although obviously cross, actually tried to follow Peter's instructions as to floating and treading water.

About two hours later, Peter seemed to have finally tired of instructing her. He and Charmain were both sitting on the pool steps, talking about their plans for exploring the house. Peter, ranting on how he would get lost even with the map, did not notice how quiet Charmain had become.

"Peter?" said Charmain, interrupting his grumblings on how hard it was to find Wizard Norland's workshop even with strings on all his fingers. "Um, well, thanks."

And with that, she scooped up a handful of water and threw it in his face.

He grinned and splashed her back. "Come on, Charmain, let's go back inside." He stood up and stepped out of the pool, Charmain following. They wrapped themselves in the fluffy white towels, walked through the gateway, and started navigating the labyrinth-like passage back home.