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Even if they’d ed to keep her disappearance concealed until nohen she failed to appear for her oedding, the secret would be out Rumors of her elopement with the mysterious Gervais would leap from lady to lady like fleas in a church pew She’d be the talk of the ton--although not quite the way her social-cli parents would have hoped What an elaborate joke she’d played on the?

Standing on tiptoe and clutching the wooden pins, she leaned over the ship’s side, staring hard into endless waves and swirling trails of foa into the seawater with all the significance of a grain of sand strewn in a desert A flash beneath the waves caught her gaze A sreen depths, then sank beneath the surface again Sophia waited, holding her breath It surfaced oncethe Aphrodite’s brisk progress A sailor nearby called to another, and the two ant creature’s course

"What is it?" Sophia wondered aloud, her eyes never leaving the water

"It’s just a dolphin-fish, miss," one of the crewmen answered The creature leapt froh the air before disappearing once ain, carving playful, exuberant arcs through the spray, trailing silver-dipped rainbows in its wake

The fish’s course veered, bringing it even closer to the ship’s hull Sophia admired the creature’s flat snout and the sharp blade of its fin, running the full length of its spine But mostits scales

"It’s beautiful," she said

A harpoon shot out fro the fish with a sick squelch

"It’s dinner," the crewman said cheerfully The twocatch aboard

Gagging, Sophia pressed a hand to her mouth and turned away

"Now don’t be squeamish, miss," the crewman said "You’ll miss the colors"

The colors? Sophia peeked over her shoulder The men had the fish completely aboard now, and its flat body thumped uselessly on the planked deck

"See, "

As the sailor spoke, the bold hues of the fish’s scales began to shiht-blue belly deepened to the truest cobalt A stripe of fresh green turned electric with gold Sophia had never seen colors so vivid--not in nature, not in paintings Not even in her drea rainbow, rather Its arcing body eventually went pale and li withdrawn their harpoon, the crewmen returned to the rail to look for utted and lifeless

Sophia had never felt so disillusioned The stark reality of life and death had been splashed in her face like so much seawater She realized, with sudden clarity, that all her life she’d been raised to view the world as a collection of objects assembled for her amusement, her ad existed for beauty alone

Even a beautiful fish still died, was still food

She’d left horand adventure Well, this was real life, and it wasn’t pretty And everypointless tears, was a moment of real life wasted

"Here’s another," one of the sailors called, flinging his harpoon back into the sea A second later, he croith triumph "Got ’im in one"

Sophia rushed back to the rail and peered over the edge at the thrashing fish churning the waves to froth A giddy thrill waran to pull in the rope, hand over hand

"May I help bring it in?" she asked

"What?" the sailor grunted, not losing his pace

"May I?" She jerked her chin at the struggling fish and laid one hand on the rope, above his She had reeled in a fish before--granted, it was a slish midlands But still, the principle appeared the saed "Don’t see why not"

Sophia grasped the rope with both hands, and he showed her how to brace one foot on the bulwark and pull hand over hand, letting the rope fall in a neat coil at their feet

"Ready to try it yerself?" he asked

She nodded, and he released the rope

"Ah!" Sophia gave a sharp cry as several yards of cable slid straight through her grip The dolphin-fish ifter than she’d expected, and stronger, too Now she’d gle

"Shall I help you,her foot and tightening her grip, Sophia clenched her teeth and began to pull, arth of rope she pulled in, it see, the fish would probably resemble mincemeat by the time she hauled it aboard