“Peregrine put out a hand and caught the hem of her skirt. Since it is almost impossible to continue walking up a staircase in a stately manner while someone is holding onto your dress, the Ordinary Princess stopped and said very haughtily indeed,
‘Will Your Majesty be so good as to release me.’
‘Don’t show off!’ said Peregrine. ‘I can talk just like that too, if I want to. And I was going to tell you. I really was. That’s what I waited for. Only of course that flatfooted fathead of a Court Chamberlain had to go and spoil it all.’
‘So you were a real prince—I mean king—all the time,’ said the Ordinary Princess.”