‘I can’t save himandyou,’ he called. ‘You can do it—you must. He’ll need you.’
He wrapped a blanket around the boy and dragged a tub towards the fire.
Alice looked at William, her relief at finding safety turning to concern at the boy’s pale colouring, and the bluish tint of his lips. His eyes were still closed.
‘I carried him from the well in the square. What’s happening to him?’
He yanked a steaming cauldron of water from the fire and poured it into the tub. ‘He’s alive, but not waking. I’ll put him in water, bring his temperature up.’
Her body trembled more at the thought of a bath. ‘Hot?’
‘Not hot. His body heat has dropped too much. Yours has probably, too. I can’t tell if his hands and feet are frostbitten yet. I won’t know until he wakes.’
‘Please—just save him.’
William called out as Hugh set him in the water.
‘Careful,’ Hugh soothed. ‘It’s water to warm you. Keep your hands and feet in. Lean down.’
More water was poured.
Her cheeks were warming. From tears? Alice raised her shaking arms as Hugh crouched by her side and ripped off her cloak, flung it to the floor.
He cursed.
‘What were you thinking? What have you done? I only have one tub, and you need to get out of these clothes.’
Alice kept her eyes on William, terrified now of him drowning.
‘Both of you could die!’ He unlaced her surcoat, her dress. Her chemise was saturated. Her arms went up.
‘You take it off. I’ve got to get back to the boy.’ He shoved a large tunic and blanket at her, grabbed the second cauldron and poured it into the tub.
William’s eyes opened just after she pulled the tunic over her head and wrapped the blanket around her. ‘Can you see me?’
Nodding, he gave her a small smile.
‘What happened?’ Hugh said, wringing out the clothes in the corner.
‘He was lost in the snow.’
‘And you went out to find him? By yourself?’ Hugh shook the cloak and hung it up. ‘It didn’t occur to you to get help?’
‘Bertrice and Father Bernard had already been out in the storm.’
‘There was me.’
‘I thought I’d find him before I got this far.’
‘I’m sorry,’ William called out.
Hugh’s heart pounded as if there was danger all around him. Instead there was merely a woman and a boy, safe and warming at his weak fire. They would live. Still, his heart would not stop its erratic beat.
‘This will take long. You need to come to the fire.’
He left the room, returned with stones and pushed them into the flames.
When he turned, Alice was bent over the tub, and cradling William. Her tiny body hovering over William’s gangly one. Everything about Alice was wrapped around William despite the tub, the water, the blanket.
