Over a thousand views! Yay! I've started writing again, but just to warn you, after the next two chapters the updates will probably be a lot slower.

HELEN

Eventually we came to a stall selling necklaces and I couldn't resist them; sneaking a glance at Callum, who was engrossed on the other side of the road with a small stone statue of a horse, I began to sort through them. I was wearing, as always, my golden locket from George but I had always secretly wanted a necklace with a snowdrop on it, as a reminder of my father's nickname for me. I knew that the likelihood of finding one was small and that of being able to afford it was smaller still but all the same I always looked for one whenever I found a place selling jewellery.

Of course, I didn't find one, but just as I was about to turn away, disappointed, a glint caught my eye and I was faced with the most beautiful necklace I had ever seen. "Oh," I said quietly, experiencing for the first time the feeling of wanting something at all costs and knowing that I couldn't have it. It was a slender silver chain, and the pendant was not a snowdrop but a tiny snowflake in silver – delicate and fragile, intricate yet simple. The man behind the stall saw my look of longing and reached up to unhook it, handing it to me wordlessly. I held it and tried to be rational. It was a piece of jewellery: nothing more. A material object that I could perfectly well do without. But I wanted it.

I shook my head. "I can't," I said to the man, remembering to use the right accent rather than the educated one my parents had always insisted on (for which I had been eternally grateful when Callum dropped me in the middle of royal life). "I don't have any money." This was a lie – I had a handful of coppers – but this necklace would certainly cost far more than I could afford.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" he answered me, reaching for it and holding it up tantalizingly. "Would suit your looks." I wondered if he could tell that I was not just a farm girl, for if he thought I could definitely not buy it then he would likely have shooed me away by now.

I sighed but before I could refuse it again, two arms were put around my waist and Callum rested his head on my shoulder from behind. I jumped, both at the suddenness and the intimacy of the gesture. "What's going on here?" he said into my ear, and I was relieved to hear that he too was remembering to speak in the right dialect.

I was about to say nothing, let's move on but the man got in before me. "Your wife was just looking at this necklace," he said shamelessly to Callum. "And I was telling her how beautiful it was, just like her."

I opened my mouth to say that I was certainly not his wife (I was meant to be his sister!) and that anyway I didn't want the necklace, but this time Callum interrupted me. "Is that so? Let's have a look." He let go of me and picked up the blasted necklace.

"Callum, put it down," I said, irritated. "There's no way you can afford it, and I don't need it anyway. I have my locket." His eyes narrowed. The fact that the locket was a present from George had been the subject of one of our many arguments.

"How much?" he asked the stall-owner by way of answer.

"For young love?" he said slyly, sensing a potential sale. "Only forty pieces of silver." I gasped. That was actually less expensive than I'd thought it would be, but all the same was equivalent to several months' worth of wages for a farm worker – and a lot of food for a family. Anyway, that settled it. I'd told Callum to only take a couple of silvers.

"I'll take it," was therefore the last thing I'd expected him to say.

"Callum!" I exclaimed. "You don't have the money!"

"My darling 'Hannah', nothing is too good for my wife," he said, looking down at me with that challenging spark in his eyes. "I've been saving for a while." He winked at me and pulled out a folded note worth ten pieces of gold – two more than was needed. He must have somehow slipped it into his pocket without me noticing. I was speechless. I couldn't tell him that I wasn't his wife and therefore had no right to his money because it would blow our cover, and anyway I knew that eight gold coins was not very much to a prince, but I didn't need the necklace, but I wanted it so badly, but did it signify something I shouldn't agree to...? Conflicting emotions continued to render my faculty of speech unavailable as Callum handed over the change and received the necklace in return, packaged up elegantly.

"Well, aren't you going to thank me?" he grinned as we walked away from the extremely happy jewellery seller.

"You – I – what – " was all I could manage.

"You're welcome." He had been holding my hand, but now he let go and put his arm round my waist, hugging me as we walked – which made it rather difficult to progress. I finally managed to get a complete sentence out.

"What are you doing?"

"Just keeping up the backstory," he said into the back of my neck. It tickled, but in a nice way, and I tried and failed to keep from smiling. "I have to look like I'm genuinely in love with you."

"Callum, you're meant to be my brother!" Somehow my voice wasn't coming out as sternly as I wanted it to. "Get off me!"

His grip, which was strong enough to keep me from breaking it, didn't loosen. "Now, is that the way to thank your husband who's just spent all his savings on a trinket for you? I could've bought a good cow with that money, you know..."

"Get off!" I repeated, but with less conviction. I was actually dying to laugh now, but I did not want him to know that I'd let him get away with his ridiculous behaviour.

"No," he said stubbornly, and I gave up and began to laugh.

"Fine. Give me my necklace," I said breathlessly. Finally, he let go of me to give me the little package. I clutched it tightly. "Thank you," I whispered. "You don't know how much it means to me."

"Don't I?" was all he said, but his eyes were as soft as I'd ever seen them. "Come here, I'll put it on for you."

I turned my back on him and held my heavy mass of hair out the way while he took off my locket and fastened the new necklace around my neck. I slipped the locket into my bag, thinking that I probably should feel guiltier about having replaced it, then pushed it from my mind. Turning round, I faced him with a smile I couldn't quite help and he surveyed me seriously. I suddenly remembered that I was wearing my home clothes, and, realising how incongruous the beautiful necklace would look with the rough material, waited for him to burst out laughing. But he didn't even smile. He just nodded, and took my hand, and we carried on walking through the streets.

Some time later, we came to the end of the market. I felt almost drunk with colours, with all the clothes and objects and foods I had seen. I also felt extremely hungry again. I was just about to say this – we had finished all my food supply for breakfast – when he asked me what I wanted to do for lunch.

"Well, I assumed we'd go back to the food court, but I don't mind where we eat it," I said happily. "Although," I added as an afterthought, "I wouldn't mind sitting down for it..."

"All right," Callum answered, looking around uncertainly. "Er, it's been a while since I was here and I can't quite remember where... I mean... well actually I've never properly been around town," he finished with an air of confessing a shameful secret. My mouth fell open.

"You mean to tell me that you've lived here all your life and you've never explored Tesserie?"

"I've been through it," he protested. "In a carriage through the main streets. I just haven't seen all of it..."

I rolled my eyes. "All right. I shall have to put this right. But food first."