It did seem hard to be doing something heroic while everyone was too busy to notice.

Well, you will have to do. If you had died along with your mother, I would have taught the cat to read.

If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog.

Ordinary life did not stop just because kings rose and fell, Mosca realized. People adapted. If the world turned upside down, everyone ran and hid in their houses, but a very short while later, if all seemed quiet, they came out again and started selling each other potatoes.

Oh, painted smirk of a hopeless dawn, the girl is still wearing her breeches.

You’re a peach full of poison, you know that?" Mosca snapped back, but could not quite keep a hint of admiration from her tone.

We always find it difficult to forgive our heroes for being human.