"So what was wrong with Bryn?" Sinbad asked that same night as he poured generous portions of rum for himself and his brother.
"Nothing I couldn't fix," Doubar said, obviously proud of that particular accomplishment.
"Should I be taking notes?" Sinbad joked, sliding one of the cups across the table to where Doubar was seated.
"Always little brother, you just might learn something," Doubar said with a wink as he took a draught of his drink.
"But Doubar, you've been scheming with Maeve that much is obvious and really, that's alright with me but… You don't really think I would take advantage of her, do you?" Sinbad asked, looking deeply into his glass.
Doubar took a moment to think on his answer, he took another healthy gulp, then carefully set his cup down and looked Sinbad in the eye. "I know you would never intentionally do anything to hurt our lass. It's obvious how much you love her. But sometimes, in moments of passion… we lose sight of consequences. All I'm trying to do is make sure that doesn't happen," Doubar said.
"I'm not a barbarian Doubar, I know right from wrong," Sinbad said. It hurt him to see that his own brother didn't think him trustworthy.
"I know that little brother. You are the best man I know! If it had been anyone else courting the lass I would've thrown them overboard long ago. She's master Dim-Dim's apprentice and he entrusted her to us. We're responsible for her safety now," Doubar explained.
Sinbad was mollified by this answer and his high spirits quickly returned. "Don't let her hear you say that! She'll do something stupid just to prove she doesn't need our protection!" Sinbad joked.
Doubar laughed with his brother and raised his glass for a toast. "To our girls, may they be as stubborn about keeping us around as they are about everything else!"
Sinbad grinned. "I'll drink to that!"
More toasts followed- a LOT more until our boys were well and truly sloshed.
"I just really love Bryn you know, she's like, like the prettiest girl in the whole world," Doubar said, a soppy smile plastered all over his face.
"Almost the prettiest," Sinbad corrected him. "Because I love Bryn, because she's like… great and everything but… what was I saying?"
"And like… her eyes, they're like… the prettiest eyes and then there's her mouth and that's the prettiest too and there's the… you know, the bits you're not supposed to mention and they're the best!" Doubar continued on, barely paying any attention to what Sinbad had to say.
"You didn't get into her unmentionables!" Sinbad giggled and promptly hiccupped.
"Wha? Of course not, 's not right. I'm a ask her to marry me, proper like. Make it a big thing. I think she'll have me. D'you think she'll have me?"
"course she'll have you. Just a… don't do it yet man, 'cause then Bryn's all engaged and Maeve'll see and then she will be all pushy to get engaged and then I have to ask her," Sinbad said.
"You're an idiot," Doubar informed his little brother, trying to point but his finger kept waving about. "Wassa problem now?"
" 's hard being married! I want more happy fun times!" Sinbad whined.
"I'll have fun times when I'm married," Doubar said.
"I'm gonna tell Maeve that you said she wasn't pretty," Sinbad said, unsteadily getting to his feet.
"I never said that! She's just not as pretty as Bryn, because Bryn is the prettiest girl in the world," Doubar said, but he spoke to an empty room.
Sinbad yet again awoke in Maeve's cabin, though he had only the faintest idea how he got there. He groaned when he moved to sit up- his head throbbed incessantly. He caught his reflection in the mirror: two plaits were sicking horizontally out from his head. Under the mirror a note was tacked to the wall, it said: "Do you feel pretty now?"
He was sort of happy he had no idea what he had said to Maeve last night to lead to this kind of morning.