When Danielle's father left (with signs of an onset heart-attack), Danielle insisted to Rodmilla and her daughters that they must wave good-bye to her father as part of a tradition. ("It's tradition! He always waves at the gate!") Whereas the Baroness ignores her and heads inside with her girls, Danielle goes ahead with waving good-bye to him. What difference does that make for Danielle's father and his heart-attack? None at all, save for one: if she hadn't witnessed him fall off his horse, no one would've known and he would've lain there without anyone to comfort him. So it was thanks to Danielle waving good-bye that he didn't die alone.
Henry can't help but be impressed that a random girl mistakes him for a horse thief and tosses apples at him to protect her father's horse. When she apologizes after recognizing the prince and expects to be punished for striking royalty, he tells her just don't mention he was there and pays her bribe money. Danielle goes from Oh, Crap! to happiness, and it might've been this act of mercy that endeared her to him.
Danielle promptly uses that bribe money to go and rescue Maurice. When Gustave points out that being caught for impersonating a noble means five days in the stocks, she shrugs it off without a thought and says Gustave would do the same for her.
Maurice is reunited with the other servants, his wife chief among them, after they all thought that they would never see each other again. It's extremely difficult to watch that scene without crying tears of joy.
Danielle's friendship with Gustave. They are still close friends after they have grown up, which hopefully made Danielle's pain of losing her father and the burden being made a servant in her own home a little more bearable.
Danielle also being close with the servants who helped raise her.
The gypsies Danielle and Prince Henry run into prove to be good people (despite trying to rob the pair). Henry even invites them to the Royal Ball.
Jacqueline cleaning the cuts on Danielle's back after the latter was whipped, while agreeing that Marguerite deserved the beating she got. This startles a laugh out of Danielle after the especially rough day she had.
Danielle: Thank you.
It takes a while to notice, but after Marguerite burns Danielle's book, Danielle meets Prince Henry again, who tells her she left her copy of "Utopia" in the carriage by accident yesterday. The book Marguerite burned was actually from the Prince's library. In a sense, Prince Henry has saved a piece of her father for Danielle.
Da Vinci encouraging Danielle to go to the ball and tell Henry the truth wins Heartwarming points:
Danielle: A bird may love a fish, signore, but where will they live? Da Vinci: Then I shall have to make you wings.
Additionally, there's Da Vinci letting Danielle know that her "inferior" background as a merchant's daughter doesn't change that she's a worthwhile person, just as he became Europe's most famous artist despite his background as a peasant. Kind of sweet when one realizes after ten years of living in the shadow of the haughty Baroness and being treated as a servant girl, this is one of the few moments someone has told her she has value.
While it doubles as a Funny Moment because of its over-the-top nature, the wedding scene between Henry and the Spanish Princess Gabriella. The poor girl is sobbing uncontrollably, begging her parents to let her marry her lover (a Spanish courtier). Henry is kneeling at the altar seriously, and then, all of a sudden, bursts out laughing at the absurdity of it all, and despite the language barrier, he calls off the wedding and lets her go to her beloved.
On top of that, he tells her, "I know exactly how you feel," before giving her a friendly kiss on the cheek.
For context, the Spanish Courtier isn't exactly easy on the eyes. The fact that Princess Gabriella chooses him over Prince Henry indicates she loves him for something other than his looks. Their joyful reunion and generous kisses speaks volumes of how happy they are together.
The prince came to rescue Danielle, after he had horribly rejected and humiliated her at the ball. To his surprise, she had already rescued herself. He then apologized to her, admitting that he was wrong and he betrayed her trust. But it turns out that she had already forgiven him for it.
Prince Henry (in apologizing for being a Jerkass) spontaneously calls Danielle by her real name (instead of Nicole, her mother's name, which he has been using up this point). She begs him to repeat not the apology, but the part where he says her name.
Another Heartwarming Moment when he finally proposes to her.
"I kneel before you not as a prince, but as a man in love... But I would feel like a king if you, Danielle de Barbarac, would be my wife."
Danielle breaking down into tears and accepting his proposal. He's so happy, he literally picks her up and swings her around as she giggles happily.
Following the above, there's this lovely implication: All her life, Danielle has never had a mother. Even when Rodmilla married into the family, the poor girl still received no motherly love. Now that she's married into Henry's family, she'll know what it means to have a kind, loving mother through her new mother-in-law, theQueen.
Some found it heartwarming that Jacqueline was able to find love at the ball (she and Laurent hit it off), even after her mother spitefully told her, "You're only going for the food." This, along with tending to Danielle's wounds and a thousand other little slights she's borne, led to Jacqueline finally deciding that she deserved better than being The Unfavorite, prompting her to turn against her mother.
Near the end, when Jacqueline recounts running into Prince Henry to Rodmilla and Marguerite, she tells them that he said to her, "Serves me right for choosing a foreigner over your...sister." They of course become excited, thinking he was referring to Marguerite, while Jacqueline simply smiles to herself. The little pause in her line implies that Jacqueline was calling Danielle her sisterin her own words.
When Leonardo presents Danielle with the aforementioned portrait, she is surrounded by all the people she loves: her new husband Prince Henry, his right-hand man and buddy Laurent, stepsister Jacqueline (who has paired up with Laurent), best friend Gustave, servants Maurice, Louise, and Paulette, and now Leonardo himself.
The story ending with Danielle and Henry's descendant narrating that the two lovers didn't simply "live happily ever after", but truly lived their lives.
