“Her father said she was a princess. He did not see that she was a brave knight.”

“Take care of him, her father had charged her. She had thought - until he wakes. But she began to see what her father had trusted to her, and how very much Sasha needed someone he could trust-Someone as brave as her father, someone not afraid of him - no matter what.”

“I will be brave, thought Despereaux. I will try to be brave like a knight in shining armour. I will be brave for the Princess Pea.”

“You saved me again," she told him with a starstruck gaze. He cupped her cheek and gave her a tender smile in the dark. "Because you are my princess and I am your knight.”

“Once there was a princess who was very beautiful. She shone bright as the stars on a moonless night. But what difference did it make that she was beautiful? None. No difference."Why did it make no difference?" asked Abilene.Because," said Pellegrina, "She was a princess who loved no one and cared nothing for love, even though there were many who loved her.”

“Father looked at her and she was beautiful in the way she had been as a girl. He did not realize the pleasure he felt in having made her cry.”