Free Heart of Ice by Alys Clare

do?’
         ‘Dad’s brother did a bit of this and a bit of that. Dad, he worked for a master mason.’ There was sudden warmth in Waldo’s voice. ‘He were a stone cutter. He didn’t do the fancy work; he cut the big stones into the rough shapes and sizes as were required.’
         Trying to come up with something kind to say to this poor lad who had just lost both parents – of whom, to judge from the way he spoke about them, he had been both proud and fond – Helewise said after a moment, ‘Then your father, Waldo, has left a memorial to his life’s work.’
         Waldo’s eyes widened. ‘I hadn’t thought of that, my lady.’ Turning to give her a shy smile, he said, ‘That’s nice, that is. I’ll tell Tam when I see him and save it up to pass on to Mariah when we go home.’
         ‘Your sister remains in the house alone?’ And the girl could not be much over fourteen, if Helewise had guessed Waldo’s age correctly.
         ‘Don’t you fret, my lady.’ Waldo had clearly followed her reasoning. ‘She may be only twelve but our Mariah can take care of herself.’
         ‘How old are you, Waldo?’ Helewise interrupted.
         ‘Fourteen last birthday,’ he said. There was a faint suggestion of a youthful chest being thrown out. ‘I’ll be fifteen this summer and then I’ll be ‘prenticed to Dad’s stone yard. I’m big enough now, but Master, he doesn’t want me till the summer.’
         He was, Helewise reflected, mature for his years  . . .
         ‘And anyway she’s got me auntie there,’ Waldo was saying, ‘me dad’s brother’s wife. She’s looking after her.’
         ‘Your aunt did not fall sick?’
         ‘Aye, she did, but she’s better. I meant Mariah’s looking after Auntie, not t’other way round.’
         ‘I see.’ It was a silly thing to say, Helewise thought, because, until she could slowly go through it all again with Waldo, preferably with her stylus and a piece of parchment so that she could take notes, she was very far from seeing anything very much.
         But making sure that she had committed every last detail to memory was not the priority: taking Waldo to see his remaining kin was. Standing up, she said, ‘Come along, young Waldo. Let’s go and find Tam and your little niece.’
     
    In a day full of anxiety and looming threat, Helewise found a rare moment of happiness when she ushered Waldo into the infirmary and took him to the adjacent cots where his brother and his little niece lay. The young boy – Tam – was sitting up in bed and his face lit up at the sight of Waldo striding along the ward towards him.
         ‘Waldo! Waldo! I’m mended!’ Tam cried out, and one or two of the nuns smiled. ‘They’ve given me ’orrible stuff to drink but the one what does the herbs and that says it’s to make me strong again and she made me hold me nose so’s I di’nt taste it! Coo, Wal, it were like sheep’s piss and I don’ know what were in it!’
         ‘Hush, Tam!’ Waldo hastened to take his brother’s outstretched hands, then, perching on the cot, enveloped Tam in his arms. Helewise heard him say something in an urgent whisper – something to do with not likening the Abbey’s remedies to sheep’s piss, she guessed – but the irrepressible Tam was too happy at being free of pain and reunited with his brother to take any notice.
         ‘They’re not cross here, they’re nice, Wal,’ he said earnestly. ‘They gave me a wash – all over! – and the nun with the big round smily face said oh, look, I’d got a brand-new white skin just a-waiting to be discovered!’
         That, thought Helewise, must have been Sister Beata.
         Waldo gave Tam another hug, then turned to look at the small cot where the baby girl lay. She was awake, her large dark eyes wide open and a nervous little smile on her lips, staring at Waldo as if she was hoping against hope that it was really him. He leaned