He had given her this. The chance to be seen as respectable. She was truly grateful to him for this opportunity to become something by herself, and she had not really expressed it in so many words.
The problem was that Richard never let anything become serious between them. He always found a way to make a joke. A filthy one, usually.
It was endearing but she knew it was a mask. No one wanted to stay funny all the time unless they were the court jester. And even jesters probably wept into their pillows after spending all day making fools laugh.
When he returned from London, she was going to make sure he listened to her. Properly listened.
He was going to listen and understand just how much she appreciated everything he had done.
