The Courting of Bryn - Chapter 25
"Maybe we shouldn't hang the herbs in your room," Maeve said seeing all the still-living roses taking up most of the available surfaces.
"Your magic is keeping all these blooms alive, and I want to dry these."
"I just wish I knew how I did it," Bryn said with a shrug, not feeling like getting into that heavy topic right now.
"You could always start a vegetable garden in here!" Maeve said brightly, picking up on Bryn's reluctance.
"That's not a bad idea actually," Bryn smiled gently. "I can use all the things you burn for fertilizer."
"Yeah, yeah, you guys all complain like I set the ship on fire every other day," Maeve grumbled. "Come on, we'll hang these in my room."
"Hey Maeve, you know I'm just messing with you right? I'd never say anything that I thought would actually hurt you," Bryn said, her gentle spirit uneasy with the idea that she could have hurt her friend.
"I know, we all mess with each other. Like today with you and Doubar trying to get me to blow up at Sinbad and it getting turned on you instead. Too funny! I guess it's a family thing, we all get to mess with each other but we stop before it actually hurts and if someone outside the family tries it they get all of us in their faces," Maeve said.
Bryn got a little teary eyed at that. "Does that make us sisters?"
Maeve looked surprised, she had not meant it to be some kind of grand statement but quickly realized that this girl had no one and nothing in the world except the Nomad's crew and everyone needed to be loved. She embraced her new sister. "Of course. We need each other with all those blokes about."
Bryn revelled in the warm feelings the hug and those words inspired in her. She hadn't even known how much she craved the unfailing love of family but now that she had it she was not letting it go.
Doubar would be her family soon, he had manoeuvred his way into her heart and now she couldn't wait for it to be made official but there was something about having brothers and sisters that struck a whole other chord in her.
"We'll have to trade off on being little sister and big sister because I have no idea how old I am," she said, trying to lighten up the situation, embarrassed by her multitude of feelings.
Bryn was surprised when she saw Maeve quickly wipe at her eyes as well when the two separated.
"You know what I always wanted a sister for?" Maeve asked, shaking off the heaviness of the situation.
"What?" Bryn asked suspiciously. It had to be something along the lines of a Chinese burn, hadn't it?
"Play dress-up! Come on, I've got a whole box of dresses some queen gave me," Maeve dragged Bryn along to the other cabin. The herbs lay forgotten in Bryn's cabin, which was alright, they'd stay alive anyway.
Bryn self-consciously smoothed down the long skirt of the dress Maeve had picked out for her; she had never worn something this fine in her entire remembered life. The fabric shimmered and flowed like water around her and the cut accentuated her figure without trying to alter it.
"You look so beautiful!" Maeve exclaimed. "You have to let me do your hair, oh and I have some cosmetics in there as well. Go on, sit down."
Bryn let all the attention wash over her, she'd never really thought that much about her appearance, but right now she truly believed she was beautiful. It was hard to think otherwise with such a dress on and her friend, sister, fussing over her like that.
"I wish we had a looking-glass, you really have to see what you look like right now," Maeve said, looking incredibly satisfied with herself as though she had summoned Bryn's beauty into being herself.
"Never mind that, you haven't picked out a dress!" Bryn protested.
"I am beginning to suspect that you didn't want a sister so much as a doll you could dress up."
"I've never been anything but an older sister, bossing siblings around is second-nature to me," Maeve grinned.
"Yeah well, as I said, I have no idea how old I am, so right now I am assuming I am older and I get to boss you around!" Bryn grinned right back before getting up to rummage in the chest full of dresses.
"Alright, but if you are picking something out for me I want something I can dance in. You know, a skirt that will fly around me as I twirl!" Maeve said, doing a little twirl on the spot.
"Are you going dancing tonight?" Bryn asked over her shoulder, still crouched by the chest of dresses.
"Yeah, the villagers wanted another celebration and I want to practice those dances I learned last night," Maeve said nonchalantly.
"And teach them to a certain sailor who shall not be named?" Bryn asked. "He was deaf last night after all."
"I don't think I am up to teaching them yet, that particular sailor can find some old woman who will lead him through the steps," Maeve said, trying to sound innocent.
"Or, knowing that sailor, a beautiful young woman will grab him and not let him go the whole night," Bryn teased.
Maeve was spared from replying because Bryn pulled a dress out of the chest. "Here, try this one!"
Just as Bryn stepped back to admire her work on Maeve's hair and face someone knocked on the door.
"Oh no! It must be dinner time! I can't go out like this!" Bryn panicked.
"Of course you can! You look great, now open the door," Maeve ordered.
"And back to bossy," Bryn grumbled but did open the door, feeling a tad sheepish as she did so.
"By Allah and his prophet Mohammed, you look beautiful!" Doubar gasped when his eyes fell on Bryn.
"Stop it, you're making me blush," Bryn beamed at him.
"May I escort you to dinner my lady?" Doubar offered her his arm.
"You may," Bryn lay her arm on his and let him lead her out, feeling like she was walking on clouds.
To her surprise he didn't lead her to the galley but off the ship and onto the beach. "Where are we going?" She asked.
"You'll see," he cryptically said.
Soon Bryn saw something on the beach: A little table draped in a white table cloth, where Rongar was just lighting a candle before spotting them and darting away out of sight.
"Is that for us?" Bryn asked.
"It is," Doubar nodded, and produced a single red rose seemingly out of nowhere, holding it out to her. "Do you like it?"
Ignoring the rose Bryn jumped into his arms instead. With a laugh he caught her, holding her close to him with one hand until he could deposit the rose in a little vase on the table. "I'll take that as a yes."
She peppered little kisses all over his face. "One day you will have to explain to me what it was that I did to deserve all this."
"I keep telling you, just being yourself is enough," Doubar said, helping her into her chair.
On cue Sinbad and Rongar appeared carrying another table between them, this one laden with all kinds of food. They put the table down on the beach next to Bryn and Doubar.
"Thanks guys," Bryn said, her smile wide and open, no longer embarrassed to be wooed so openly.
"You look beautiful Bryn," Sinbad said, Rongar nodded his agreement. "Now because I know you two are ever vigilant when it comes to who I talk to after the sun sets I just thought I'd let you know that I am going dancing in the village tonight. I will probably dance with Maeve at some point, please refrain from reading too much into that, I will also dance with various other women if they're so inclined, don't read anything into that either. Enjoy your dinner, you two!"
With that Sinbad and Rongar walked away, back to the village where the party was about to start. About halfway there they met up with Firouz and Maeve.
"Based on my calculations, factoring in breeze, angle of sunset, glare, decrease in temperature and blowing sands, I have to insist that that really is the perfect dinner spot!" Firouz argued.
"You forgot one factor though," Maeve looked smug and winked at Sinbad and Rongar when they approached.
"What?" Firouz questioned, sure that he had gone over everything.
"The tide, it's coming in, they'll have wet feet in two hours," Sinbad supplied the answer.
Firouz looked thoroughly bummed out. "Should I go back and re-calculate the ideal spot to have a beach dinner on?"
Rongar clapped him on the shoulder and shook his head.
"Don't worry about it Firouz, Doubar has never in his life took over two hours to have a meal so I think we'll see them at the dance soon enough, that is, if they don't steal away to be alone somewhere," Sinbad waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Sinbad!" Maeve protested. "A little decorum!"
"What?" Sinbad turned to Firouz, hoping that the scientist had the answer to what he had done wrong this time.
Rongar took this opportunity to sign to Maeve that she looked lovely and she wanted to dance the first dance with him.
"I'd love to dance with you Rongar," Maeve smiled brightly.
This sure got Sinbad's attention real quick. "You look absolutely stunning Maeve," he said, not to be outdone by his friend.
"I know, right?" Maeve said excitedly. "And look!" She twirled around and her multi-coloured dress shimmered and flashed like a rainbow.
"You're not supposed to agree that you look great!" Sinbad complained. "There's a whole etiquette to this stuff."
"Well I do look great, and you know nothing about etiquette anyway," Maeve said, enjoying their nonsensical argument.
They squabbled some more as they followed Rongar and Firouz to the dancing grounds. When they were almost there Sinbad held her back a moment.
"Can I have the last dance?" he asked, his voice now low and and soft, hitting her right where he intended.
"Just the last?" She asked.
"Well I'd ask you for every dance but just think of all the questions we'd have to answer…" He said. "How about this; the last dance at the very least and every other dance we can get away with."
"Deal," she smiled at him, enjoying the moment.
"Oh and Maeve," Sinbad said, just before she walked away to join Rongar. "You look absolutely, heart-stoppingly, breathtakingly, gorgeous."