“But if he’s so busy, would he even notice if Yves —”
“Your brother will gain precious little knowledge,” Count Lucien said dryly,
“locked in the Bastille.”
“Marie-Josèphe,” Yves said, “I have no intention of opposing His Majesty’s wishes.”
“Count Lucien,” Marie-Josèphe said, “do you explain to His Majesty. My brother’s work preserves the glory of capturing the sea monsters. His Majesty’s glory!”
“You expect too much of me, Mlle de la Croix. It might be best,” Count Lucien said, with some impatience, “to continue after Carrousel, when the live sea monster will no longer scream.”
“By then, nothing will be left but the sea monster’s bones, and the vermin its flesh generates!”
“Regrettable,” Count Lucien said.
“Forgive my sister, please, M. de Chrétien,” Yves said. “She understands little of ceremony.”
Embarrassed, Marie-Josèphe fell silent. The lackeys swept up the wet, slushy pulp around the dissection table. Their brooms scratched softly against the planks.
“Is your understanding any better, sir?” Count Lucien asked. “You disappointed His Majesty when you missed his awakening. I advise you not to disappoint him again.
He expects you at Appartement, for his entertainments, this evening. Don’t throw away these honors.”
Marie-Josèphe jumped to her feet. “I can’t allow His Majesty to think that was my brother’s fault!” she cried.
The sea monster echoed her exclamation.
“Hush, Marie-Josèphe,” Yves said. “No need to involve M. de Chrétien. His Majesty forgave me —”
“For my error!” The sea monster whistled, as if to emphasize Marie-Josèphe’s mistake.
“What does it matter? All’s well.”
Count Lucien considered, his brow furrowed for a moment. “M. de la Croix has the right of it,” he said to Marie-Josèphe. “His Majesty need not be troubled twice to forgive a single transgression. I must caution you against another lapse.”
Count Lucien bowed to Yves, to Marie-Josèphe, and took his leave. He leaned on his walking stick heavily, after the long hours of inactivity. Though the sides of the tent remained open, he departed through the entrance, and the musketeers held the curtains aside. Outside, his Arabian bowed. He clambered into the saddle and galloped away.
When he was out of earshot, Marie-Josèphe said, “I’m so sorry, I’ve made such a dreadful tangle of today — of your triumph.”
“Truly,” Yves said, “it’s forgotten.”
She gave him a quick, grateful hug.
“Go feed the creature — hurry. And bid it be silent!”
Marie-Josèphe entered the sea monster’s cage and captured a fish. It twisted in the net, weak and nearly dead.
“Sea monster! Dinner! Fish!” She swept the net through the water. Her fingers dipped beneath the surface, into the low vibration of the sea monster’s voice.
Beneath the hooves of the dawn horses, the sea monster lifted her head. Her hair, her forehead, her eyes rose above the water. She peered at Marie-Josèphe.
“Will it scream again if I take down the curtains?” Yves asked.
“I don’t know, Yves — I don’t know why it started screaming. Or why it stopped, or why it sings.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter — the noise won’t trouble the King.”
The lackeys pulled down the makeshift curtains and remade the sides of the tent.
“It was in such distress,” Marie-Josèphe said. “Come here, sea monster. Are you all right? Are you hurt?’
Silent, the sea monster swam toward her. Marie-Josèphe let the live fish free. The sea monster darted forward, netted it between its webbed hands, and ate it in one bite.
“It’s so quick!”
“It wasn’t quick enough to escape the net.”
Marie-Josèphe threw it another fish. The sea monster kicked its tails, jumped halfway out of the water, and caught the fish in the air. It disappeared into the pool, crunching the fish’s bones and fins between its teeth.
“But you said — it was mating, it was entranced —”
“I don’t care to discuss that.” Yves’ face flushed beneath his fading tan.
“But —”
“I will not discuss fornication, even animal fornication, with my sister who is straight from the convent!”
Yves’ tone startled her. When they were children, they had discussed everything. Of course, when they were children, neither had known a thing about fornication, animal or otherwise. Perhaps he still knew nothing, and his ignorance embarrassed him, or the truth of it frightened him, as what Marie-Josèphe had learned in the convent frightened her.
She netted the last fish and offered it to the sea monster from her bare hand. The sea monster swam within an armslength. The fish thrashed in Marie-Josèphe’s fingers.
“Come, sea monster. Fish, good fish.”
“Fishhhhh,” said the sea monster.
Marie-Josèphe caught her breath, delighted. “She talks, just like a parrot.”
She let the fish swim into the sea monster’s hands. The sea monster crunched it between her teeth, and submerged.