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‘No.’ She straightened up with a snap. Even if she’d already failed as a wife, she’d no intention of failing as a teacher as well. ‘Wouldn’t you like to learn where all the ships in the harbour travel to? All the ones that your...guardian builds?’
As usual, she hesitated over the word guardian, though surely Robert didn’t think her so naive as not to guess the real relationship between him and the boy. Matthew could hardly have looked any more like him. So why on earth hadn’t he told her he had a son? Apparently, maintaining an appearance of respectability was even more important to him than she’d thought. The things they weren’t telling each other would fill a book at this rate.
‘S’pose.’ Matthew rested his head on his arms.
‘Good.’ She tapped the wooden desk with her knuckles, making him spring up again. ‘Come to the window.’
‘Why?’
She didn’t answer, gesturing towards the horizon. ‘Now, if you were to sail in a straight line directly from here, you’d get to Denmark. This is us...’ she trailed her fingers across the globe ‘...and this is Denmark. It’s part of Scandinavia, where the Vikings came from.’
‘The ones with horns on their helmets?’
‘That’s them. They came here a long time ago and destroyed the whole town.’
‘Here?’
‘Then a few of them decided to stay. They were the ones who named it Whitby. The word means “white settlement” in old Norse.’
Matthew gave a begrudging look of interest before remembering to frown again. ‘Are you going to be teaching me every day?’
‘In the mornings, yes.’
‘Does it have to be here?’ He peered wistfully out of the window. ‘Only it’s been raining for weeks. Now it’s finally sunny again.’
‘And you’d rather be outside?’
He nodded vigorously. ‘We could go down to the shore. You could tell me some more about Vikings on the way.’
Ianthe glanced outside, torn between the desire to make friends and a sudden rush of panic. The day was bright and inviting, the sunshine bouncing off the water just over the cliff’s edge, making the air itself seem to sparkle, and yet even the thought of venturing outside made her hands start to sweat and her stomach to churn alarmingly. After three months of staying mostly indoors, the outside world felt dangerous somehow.
‘It’s a high tide, isn’t it?’ She tried to sound discouraging.
‘It’s going out again now.’
‘Trying to get out of class already?’
They both swung around at the sound of Robert’s voice. He was standing only a few paces behind them, pale eyes glinting with amusement.
‘You’re back!’ Matthew charged across the room, flinging himself enthusiastically against Robert’s legs.
‘So I
am.’ He wrapped an arm around the boy’s shoulders. ‘A good thing, too, I suspect. Are you trying avoid lessons?’
‘Not at all.’ Ianthe leapt to Matthew’s defence, trying to ignore the sudden thumping sensation in her chest, as if her heart were actually jumping around inside there. ‘We were just talking about Vikings.’
‘Whitby means white settlement,’ the boy announced proudly.
‘Is that so? Then I stand corrected.’ Robert winked at Matthew before turning to her with a look of polite, guarded enquiry. ‘Have you been researching local history?’
‘A little.’ She tried to smile, but her features seemed frozen into place. ‘I thought I ought to learn something about my new home.’
‘I’m pleased to hear it.’
Ianthe reached behind her, grasping hold of the window ledge for support. She’d replayed their last conversation in her head so many times that seeing him again seemed almost unreal. Now he was there she had no idea what to say, no idea how to pick up the pieces left by her running away.
‘We were about to go down to the harbour.’ Matthew sounded as if he were trying to convince both of them.
