"Oh-!" Ilona gasped, eyes widening in surprise. No one had ever touched her so informally before except her parents- well, she supposed he had, when they were running for their lives, but that seemed a bit different.
But she was too damn cold to care. Her arms went around his middle, under the cloak, and she actually stepped up onto the toes of his boots to get her bare feet out of the snow. "Th-th-thank you," she murmured, pressing her freezing nose into his collar. Then a small, almost disjointed smile tugged at her lips.
"Snow. It's c-called snow."