Northern's clones could do almost everything he could, except one simple thing.
Speech.
On several occasions, he had tried, but had never been able to get a clone to speak. They were just like empty vessels that mirrored him and carried his commands.
Even though speech was incapable of commands, they did not show any slight signs of capability of action that diverted away from anything under his command.
Essentially, they were clones to the bitter end of their soulless vessels. Things that couldn't exist without Northern and existed only to mirror him.
While Northern could tell from where he was that the lady was talking to his clone, he felt no need to respond. If not, he would have brought his consciousness back to his main body.
However, just as he decided against it, an explosion of snow shook the order of the entire caravan. The consciousness of his clone in his body could have handled it.