The baby woke us all, just at first light; I managed to sneak my pupil back in with the others without anyone noticing.

Hawk pulled back the curtain. “Stones, you stink!” he exclaimed. “Where do you get water?”

“From the Elven Pool,” said a girl’s voice.

“Show me. Or no, show Seer.” Thank you Hawk – couldn’t face a bit of cold weather all of a sudden?

The girl came out, still trying to hide herself with her hands. I recognised her; she was one of Stack’s tormentors last night. I picked up my cloak and a spear and she picked up a bucket as we walked to the door. As the wind outside hit her, she recoiled.

“Oh, please let me put on a –”

“Out!” I said, and pushed her with the spearbutt. “Now!”

And then I realised I held the solution to one of our problems: Stack. He had a right to revenge, but he would be reluctant to hit or hurt a girl – and quite right too, I felt. But if I took revenge for him, and drew the line for him? Yes, that should work.

It was far colder than yesterday, I was delighted to find. We went up across the flat area to where a stream had been diverted into a pool, only twenty paces away from the house. The pool was three paces across, but more than twice that wide; to the right, under the hill, the end was a half circle of steps going into the water, with the stream cascading in down a specially cut channel at the midpoint; on the left a complicated ramp thing led into the water, across its bottom end and out. Although the pool was so huge it seemed to have been carved out of a single huge block of stone; I could understand why the farm people thought the Elders had made it.

There was ice on the ramps and the steps, and cat ice covered much of the pool; even by the steps it rimmed the water for a good foot wide.

The girl was already chattering with cold. She looked pleadingly at me, but I just gestured to the pool. She worked her way down the steps, broke the ice with the bucket, and filled it. She winced whenever her hands touched the water. Then she came back up the steps, and made as if to go back to the farm.

“Put the bucket down!” I said.

She looked at me, almost said something, then put it down. She huddled herself, desperate for warmth.

“Now, in the pool.”

“What? Oh no, please!”

“You heard Hawk; you naked savages stink. And you played with a naked savage last night, didn’t you. Get in the pool!” I waved the spear at her.

She tiptoed down the steps, and almost put a foot in the water. She hesitated, looking back at me.

“In!” I said. She turned away, but she still hesitated, so I pushed her in with the spear butt. It was a lovely splash. When she surfaced again she was almost too chilled to breathe; but she flailed her arms around, wide-eyed and gasping, and tumbling back under water again and again. I let her flail for a minute or so.

“Excellent. That will do!” I said, but she was past hearing me. I grabbed her hair and steered her to the steps. She slipped once, jarring herself quite badly, but I took no notice.

“Now you can take the bucket of water in.”

The wind was on her back, so it wasn’t too bad, and it was only twenty steps to the wall, fifteen to the door and inside. She put the bucket down and turned to me.

“Please let me go to the fire and get warm!”

“Stack,” I called, “may this savage come close to the fire? She says she’s cold.”

Stack turned, and saw her dripping and blue. “Oh, her.” He grinned. “What did you do – empty the bucket over her?”

“No, sent her swimming. It’s easily wide and deep enough. I thought you’d like it; she’s one of your two friends from last night. She can warm herself, can’t she?” I nodded at him, behind her back.

“OK, she can get warm.” The girl ran to the fire, Stack’s eyes following her. “Where’s the other one? Ah, there you are, my girl,” he went on.

His other tormentor shrank back.

“You can come for a swim, too. Oh don’t be so scared – I promise, if you do as you’re told I mightn’t even touch you. Go on!”

“Don’t touch her!” I said quietly to him.

“I won’t.”

The second eldest lad was watching. He bit his lip, and walked up to me.

“The animals need seeing to. They’ll die if they ben’t fed nor watered.”

“Can you do it by yourself?”

“Yes.” He sounded surprised. “I’ll touch not my father or my brother, I swear.”

“Then do it. But,” I called after him, “put on your clothes and a cloak. And those leather things for your feet.”

“Shoes.”

“Put them on too. You’ll catch your death of cold out there.”

He raised an eyebrow, glanced at his sister, and then dressed and went out.

Stack came back nearly ten minutes later, shepherding the girl in front of him; she was even bluer than her sister, she was whimpering, and she was carrying a stack of sheets of ice in her arms.

“You see? Never touched her, not even with a spearbutt.” And he was proud of it, said his tone of voice. He waved at the girl. “Put the ice in that other bucket, sweetie, and then you can go and get warm like your sister.”

At last, I’d managed to get something right.

We ate breakfast, prepared by the lady of the house and served again by her two daughters, and we did not leave any for anyone else. We finished just as the lad came back from seeing to the animals.