"Soooo…" Bryn drawled as she happened upon Maeve near the prow. "I heard you had some company last night."
Maeve tried to will the blush that suddenly tinted her cheeks away- it was of no use. She tried to play it cool anyway. "Really? Where'd you hear that?"
"Let's just say a little birdy told me," Bryn grinned, loving being on the other side of this conversation.
Maeve made a mental note to kill Dermott. "Well you know you shouldn't believe everything you hear."
"Oh I know, I've learned to be a very discerning listener on board this ship," Bryn nodded sagely.
"Well alright, he did come to talk to me last night, but that's all that happened," Maeve conceded. "You'd said something to him that made him think and he wanted to run it by me."
"The bit where you want to have his babies?" Bryn guessed.
"Bryn!" Maeve gasped, completely shocked. "You said WHAT?"
"I was only joking, he knew that, it wasn't serious at all," Bryn back-pedalled furiously, but it was too late.
"No wonder he freaked out last night. He told me in so many words that he was not marrying me. I had to do some fast-talking to keep him from jumping his own ship!" Maeve glared at Bryn.
"I'm sorry Maeve, I didn't think he would take it that way!" Bryn said, cringing under Maeve's stare.
"I think I messed up," Bryn confided to Doubar when he came down to help her ready lunch.
"What happened?" Doubar asked, concerned.
"Well Dermott told me that Sinbad came to Maeve's cabin last night, so I confronted her," Bryn explained.
"He did what?" Doubar nearly choked on his own tongue.
"Well Dermott did say nothing but talking happened, and he was asleep for half of it and didn't get what they were talking about half the time… But anyway, Maeve told me he came to her basically to tell her he was never going to marry her," Bryn explained.
"Wha…" Doubar was speechless for a moment. "Why would he do a thing like that? After the whole business with the letter… He just goes and…" Doubar shook his head. "It's not just me who sees some pretty obvious signs that he is infatuated with the lass, right?"
"I guess he's just too scared. He wants it, he tried, but when push comes to shove he just can't do it," Bryn said.
"I'll go and have a talk with him," Doubar sighed.
"Do you mind if I went to talk to him instead? It was my baby joke that brought this on, I feel like I should be the one to fix it," Bryn suggested.
"You are not responsible for my little brother's emotional state Bryn, but if you want to talk to him, I would appreciate it," Doubar said.
Bryn found Sinbad at the tiller after lunch and decided she couldn't put off this conversation any longer.
"Maeve told me about your conversation last night," Bryn said, her voice low so they wouldn't be overheard.
"She did?" Sinbad asked, not having been briefed by Maeve on the subject his mind was racing. All this double-layered scheming stuff was difficult!
Bryn took his surprise in stride. "So why don't you want to marry her?"
Of all the truths, half-truths and outright lies they had told… He should've known this one would've come back to bite him in the butt. "I don't want to talk about it." Well it seemed like the safest thing to say.
"But you felt the need to go to her in the middle of the night to tell her that?" Bryn asked.
"I didn't want her to get the wrong idea, you know, with the letter and everything," Sinbad said, really wishing he knew exactly why Maeve had told the other sorceress.
"You said some pretty nice things to her in that letter," Bryn pointed out. "Did you mean them?"
Sinbad cringed when he thought about how that letter had actually been written. "Mostly," he said.
Bryn noticed how uncomfortable Sinbad was and it wasn't very fair of her to corner him in a place he couldn't get away from but she just needed to understand why everything just felt so weird. "And then, the moment you stood a chance of her reciprocating those pretty nice feelings, you felt the need to push her away again…"
"Didn't mean to," Sinbad said, actually starting to sweat.
"Do you want to fix it?" Bryn asked.
"Yes?" Sinbad posed it as a question because his mind could no longer follow the various layers of the scheme.
"So how about you have another conversation with her tonight?" Bryn suggested.
"I can't, I have the tiller tonight," Sinbad said, not adding that he would have to confer with Maeve on how to lie through this particular obstacle.
"I thought Doubar had the tiller tonight," Bryn said with a frown.
"Well he does, but not until later…" Sinbad sweated some more, almost having betrayed yet another secret,
"Right… So are you going to talk to Maeve?" Bryn asked, noticing exactly how weird Sinbad was being.
Sinbad just nodded and Bryn, figuring she had wrung all the answers out of him that she could, left him in peace.
Bryn had changed into her night gown and was just combing out her hair when she heard a beautiful deep voice start to recite a poem. She would've recognised that voice anywhere.
Quickly she pulled a shawl over her shoulders and opened her door. There in the narrow hall stood Doubar, reciting the poem Majnun Layla about a man driven insane by his love for Layla. Soon two instruments joined in, Bryn spotted Firouz and Rongar at the end of the hall, Firouz taking a second and then joining in to form a harmony with Doubar. Eventually a female voice joined in, Maeve sat on the stairs leading up to the deck.
Bryn re-focused her gaze on Doubar and the beautiful, tragic story he was telling. She barely knew how to stand, what to do with her hands, she felt so overwhelmed being serenaded by Doubar with help from half the crew.
When Layla and her madman had died and the song wound down she basically fell into Doubar's arm, not even noticing the tears running down her cheeks. "That was beautiful," she muttered.
"Thanks guys," she said a little louder. Without fuss or comment the three crew-members left the hallway.
Doubar set her back on her feet and carefully wiped the tears away. "So you liked it?"
"Loved it. Every time I think you can't surprise me anymore, you do something like this. I feel a little overwhelmed actually," Bryn admitted.
"I hope I will be surprising you for a long time to come," Doubar said, his own eyes suspiciously shiny now that he was faced with her tears.
"If it's up to me, you definitely will," Bryn smiled up at him. She had known Doubar really cared for her for a while now, but to be reminded of it again and again… It made her feel very safe and well-loved.
Doubar gently, almost carefully kissed her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, trying to convey just how happy she was when she was with him.
Eventually Doubar reluctantly broke the kiss. "I'm late to take over the tiller," he said, his eyes full of apology.
"Want some company?" Bryn asked, caressing his cheek and then running her fingers through his beard.
Doubar was tempted for a moment, but she was in her nightgown, ready for bed. "You get your rest. I'll see you in the morning."
A/N: For info on the poem/song: wiki/Layla_and_Majnun