#NaNoWriMo : Alasdair's Humility

One thing I love Alasdair for is his humbleness. Here is one of my favourite descriptions of him from the point of the Royal Guard:

They bowed and accepted the letters, but before they could say their assenting Your Majesties, Alasdair had turned from them and was walking toward the gallery. He was decidedly altered from his usual cheerful state, and they supposed that the trinkets in his hand must be owing to some very unpleasant cogitations. They moved to ask His Majesty whether he would like to be escorted to his quarters, but he was turning into the gallery and was gone before they could make their supplications. The guards observed to one another how humble and quiet Alasdair was, moving about his own castle without ever asking to be announced anywhere; without grandeur, without flare, all politeness and manners and attention, speaking to everyone with equality and modulation as though he were wondering how he could best serve them rather than demanding to be served himself; never wearing the king’s ring except at official ceremonies, never wearing blue or ermine, always remembering everyone’s name and position, and never showing his disapprobation unless within the confines of the royal court. Seeing their king observe the old traditions without any provocation from the Church made them think him an even more admirable and amiable king than he already was. They gloried in knowing that Alasdair was under his grandfather’s influence, untouched by Allande’s recklessness, and they decided that if the king would not attend the affected celebration, they should not stand at its door. They each took a letter and marched to the front gate, proud to fulfill the king’s order, and would wait there until they received word of the response the letters should yield.