And it's been going on a while. Mat doesn't fit what all her conditioning tells her men are. He doesn't owe her a thing, has reason for animosity (and obviously does feel some) but he's helped her out a lot because he knows it's right. She's a colossal annoyance and risk he endures solely for her sake and his sense of morality. Cloistered among women without Warders, where the few fond of men are mostly tolerated as misguided eccentrics, most of the rest apparently see men as a necessary evil, at best. Mat's probably her first large exposure to male virtue, or perhaps her first taste of a man with nearly every habit women enjoy deploring in WoT, but nonetheless possessing, at times possessed by, a strong morality. Teslyn's a Red and Joline's a Green, but I think Teslyn has a lot more respect (and gratitude) for Mat.