Page 86 - RotalTutor

didn’t want to act too impressed with it, for she carried no money, and she knew Alexander’s supply was quite limited. But he had noticed her longing, and when she was not looking, he purchased it for her. He told her he had wanted to give her a birthday present, but on her birthday he figured she wouldn’t accept one from him. When he put the necklace around her neck, the whole market erupted into applause. The Esconodian man said, “It good your woman have much pretty necklace.” Alexander was again very quick to assure the people that she was the princess and did not belong to him - too quick, Louise thought. She could sense, however, that it was not because of his lack of feelings for her, but, instead, because of them. She knew that what her father had said about her finding someone more worthy was always on his mind. She had long since decided that Alexander was who she wanted, but he never seemed to be able to put far from his thoughts that there were those who felt he was not worthy of her. She tried in every way to hint that her heart was his, but she felt his fear of an inevitable separation always hung over him and their friendship. They never talked about it directly, because anytime she tried to move the topic of conversation toward anything of that nature, he just as quickly changed the subject. Wherever they went she took his arm. He seemed to really enjoy that. But every time she did she would hear him take a deep breath as if steeling himself against the 84