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Her face brightened enthusiastically. ‘Then I’d be happy to help. I’d like to see your shipyard anyway.’
‘Really?’
‘Of course. It was the reason we got married, wasn’t it? I’d like to see what I’m helping to build.’
‘Then I’ll arrange it.’
‘Thank you.’
Robert smiled across the table with a new sense of appreciation. Things were definitely looking up. Apparently there was more to his wife than he’d first given her credit for. She might prove an asset to his business in more ways than one. The soup clearly hadn’t satiated her appetite either. She was eating even more heartily now than before.
‘Did you go to school?’ She paused briefly between mouthfuls.
‘Me?’ He almost dropped his fork in surprise. ‘No. We hardly had money for food, let alone schooling.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think...’
‘I’m not offended, Ianthe, but I thought you knew about my background. Surely Kitty told you.’
‘She’s been distracted with plans for the baby, I think. Aunt Sophoria told me your mother raised you, but if you taught Matthew to read and write then you must have learnt those skills somewhere?’
‘I was always good with numbers.’ He speared a potato, feeling a vague sense of discomfort. He wasn’t accustomed to talking about himself or his past, but then, she was his wife. She had a right to ask a few questions about him. As long as it was only a few...
‘I couldn’t read or write when we moved to Whitby, but I could turn my hand to most things and I was a quick learner. When I was twelve, I got a job at Masham’s Shipyard as an apprentice. Mr Masham saw something in me and took me under his wing.’
‘So he taught you?’
‘After I’d finished my regular work, yes. Then, when I was good enough, he made me a clerk in his office. It turned out I had a talent for business. Old Masham had come up from nothing himself and we made a good team. By the time he died, we were partners. He left me the rest of the yard in his will.’
‘Didn’t he have any family?’
‘No, he loved his work, practically lived at the yard. He didn’t want any distractions...’ He winced at his tactlessness. ‘Not that marriage is a distraction necessarily.’
She gave a placatory smile. ‘You don’t have to defend yourself. Our marriage is a business arrangement, after all. Mr Masham might have approved.’
‘Probably. Not that he ever cared about being respectable.’
‘He might have been right.’ She sounded thoughtful. ‘Why is respectability so important after all?’
‘Only a person who’s never had to worry about it would ask that question.’ His voice hardened dangerously.
‘You just said that Mr Masham didn’t care.’
‘His mother was never called a whore in the street.’
Robert clenched his jaw, regretting the words the instant they were out of his mouth. Damn it, this was the reason he didn’t answer questions about himself. He could keep his temper on almost every other subject.
‘They called her that?’ Ianthe was staring at him with a frankly appalled expression.
‘Amongst other things.’
‘Because of your father?’
‘In part.’ He put his cutlery down, losing his appetite suddenly. ‘There were other rumours, too, not that there was any truth to them. Some people just prefer to see the worst. They think that when a woman makes a mistake once, she’ll make it again.’
‘But that’s not fair!’
He gave a bitter laugh. ‘No, but
