Stella learnt to swim when she was five years old; she barely remembers a point in her life when she wasn't completely comfortable in the water, so Benedict's clear anxiety about it is foreign to her in the sense that it's difficult for her to imagine exactly what he's feeling.

Still — she's hardly going to make fun of him for it. There are plenty of adults who've never swum in their lives. "I could teach you a little," she suggests. Enough to at least tread water so he doesn't sink, and maybe if that makes him less nervous he'll actually learn to enjoy it. What is probably not a good idea is having him get into the deep part of the pool straight away.

Stella glances downstream from the waterfall, toward where the pool exits into the river. The water is clear enough that she can see where the bottom slopes upward a bit, making the pool just about shallow enough for her to stand in even at her height.

"Over here," she says, and swims the few strokes to get where she wants to be. "It's a bit more shallow; you should be able to stand on the bottom."

She's right here, in any case. He's not going to drown.