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“My feet are like leather — we never wore shoes on the galleon.”
He joined her in the cage, holding the torch out over the water. A spark fell and sizzled. The sea monster spat at it, whistled angrily, and dove.
“It slithered around out here. It climbed the stairs! I didn’t think it could make progress on land. It knocked a flask over, it fled back to the fountain... I must have left the gate ajar.”
“You tested it,” Marie-Josèphe said. “You latched it and rattled it.”
He shrugged. “I couldn’t have. Tomorrow I’ll get a chain.”
Yves sat abruptly. He slumped forward, his head down, hair hanging in rumpled black curls. Marie-Josèphe snatched the torch before it fell. Concerned, she sat beside her brother and put her arm around his shoulder.
He patted her hand. “I’m only tired,” he said.
“You work so hard,” Marie-Josèphe said. “Let me help you.”
“That wouldn’t be proper.”
“I was a good assistant when we were children — I’m no less able now.”
She feared he would refuse, and that would be the end of it. I no longer know my brother, she thought, distressed. I no longer know what he’ll say, what he’ll do, before he knows it himself.
He raised his head, frowned, hesitated. “What about your duties to Mademoiselle?”
Marie-Josèphe giggled. “Sometimes I hold her handkerchief, if Mlle d’Armagnac doesn’t snatch it first. She’d hardly notice I was gone. I need only tell her you need me — so your work might please the King...”
His brow cleared. “I’d be grateful for your help. You haven’t become squeamish, have you?”
“Squeamish!” She laughed.
“Will you document the dissection?”
“I’d like nothing better.”
“The dissection will occupy my time. Will you take the charge of the live sea monster? Feed it —”
“Yes. And I’ll tame it, too.”
“You’ll need all your ingenuity to persuade it to eat.” His beautiful smile erased the exhaustion from his face. “I’m certain you’ll succeed. You were better with the live things than I ever was.”
Delighted to be part of his life, part of his work, once again, Marie-Josèphe kissed his cheek.
Yawning, he pushed himself to his feet. “There’s time still for a bit of sleep.” His smile turned wry. “Not even the Jesuits reconciled me to waking early.”
“I’ll take that duty, too,” Marie-Josèphe said. “I’ll wake you in time to attend the King.”
“That would be a considerable kindness,” Yves said.
He ushered Marie-Josèphe out of the cage, closed the gate, and latched it and rattled it just as he had done earlier in the evening. The sea monster’s lament followed them.
“Oh!” Marie-Josèphe jumped back from something cold and slimy beneath her foot.
“What is it — did you step on glass?”
She picked up a dead fish.
“Your sea monster doesn’t like its fish.”
4
Marie-Josèphe walked through the silent dawn gardens of Versailles. At first light, the gardeners had vanished but the courtiers still slept and the visitors had not yet arrived. She was alone in the beauty, surrounded by flowers, perfumed by a cloud of orange perfume.
She strode down the Green Carpet toward Apollo, planning her day. She would feed the sea monster, then return to the chateau in plenty of time to wake Yves and break their fast with bread and chocolate. He would attend His Majesty’s awakening. She could not accompany him, because women did not participate in the grand lever. Instead, she would wait for him in the guard room with the other ladies and the less-favored men, and join the procession to Mass.
The morning delighted her. The world delighted her. When she kicked a small stone down the path, she thought, with a few strokes of my pen, with a calculation, I can describe the motion of its rise and fall. I can predict its effect on the next stone, and the next. M. Newton’s discoveries allow me to describe anything I wish, even the future paths of the stars and the planets. And now that I am free of the convent, no one will forbid me to do so.
A breeze rustled the leaves of the potted orange trees. Marie-Josèphe considered how to predict the fluttering motion, and though the solution eluded her for the moment, she felt certain she could discover it with some time and consideration.
M. Newton must have solved such a simple problem, she thought. Dare I write to him again? Would he bother to reply at all, when he condescended to communicate with me once, and I failed to answer? I wish I had seen the contents of his letter.
The chateau of Versailles stood on a low hill; the Green Carpet led downward to the sea monster’s tent.
A much easier walk than last night! she thought. She wore her riding habit, more practical and easier to walk in than court dress.
As she neared the laboratory tent, a half-dozen heavy wagons rumbled along the Queen’s Road toward the fountain. Barrels weighed each one down.
Count Lucien cantered his grey Arabian past the wagons. The fiery horse scattered gravel from its hooves, flicked its jaunty black tail, and drew up beside the tent. Count Lucien saluted Marie-Josèphe with his walking stick. Under his supervision, the workmen raised the tent’s sides and the drivers lined up the wagons.
Marie-Josèphe entered the tent, unlatched the cage door, and hurried in. From the Fountain’s rim, she sought the sea monster.
The creature’s long dark hair and iridescent leathery tails shimmered beneath the hooves of Apollo’s dawn horses.
“Sea monster!”
The creature flicked its tails, pushing itself deeper beneath the sculpture. Marie-Josèphe reached for a fish, then thought better of it. The ice had melted around the basket, and the dead things reeked.
“Lackey!”
Unlike the sea monster, the lackey came running, pulling his forelock and keeping his gaze on the ground.
“Yes, mamselle?”
“Get rid of those smelly things. Where are the fresh fish? And the new ice?”
“Coming along from the kitchen, mamselle, here, just now.” He pointed. Several men approached, one with a wicker basket, two others pushing barrows full of ice.
“Good. Thank you.”
He bobbed a bow and ran to hurry the others along. They set a wicker basket of fish inside the cage, then went to work shovelling fresh ice onto Yves’ specimen.
