There's a certain value to being underestimated, and he can't deny it. It's not something he can use, not anymore. But he's not unaware of the fact, and if Ashley is able to use to her advantage than so much the better, as far as he's concerned. Their world is dangerous, and while he's uncertain if either of them will be able to go back to it, whenever they find a way out of the village and its surroundings the skills Helen has taught her should be just as useful elsewhere. As it will be here, should there be any reason for her to need to defeat one of the various monsters that lurk outside the village.

(He hopes, of course, that it doesn't come to that, for all that he knows that she take care of her self. But at the same time he knows better than to assume it won't, between the Observers' tendency to throw the unexpected at them and the bloodlust Ashley has inherited from him besides. Even if sparring will hopefully take enough of the edge off of that to keep it from being a problem for either of them.)

"We've spoken about this before."

Briefly, yes. But the topic has at least come up, for all that he doesn't entirely blame her for still being upset; isn't the least bit surprised that it's come up now, and he continues to match her blow for blow, the only outward sign of the effort involved that his his voice has dropped to low rumble.

"I could hardly-" a pause and a wince as he doesn't block a blow fast enough "- have threatened your mother. And she had something I needed."

That she had tampered with the same blood that had once helped had been something that should, perhaps, have foreseen. But he'd been more than a little desperate, and while that's still no excuse for his actions, he hopes that it can at least partially explain them.