Pirates' Plunder

I was on a ship of sin. My body told me that I belonged here. I could think of nothing but Sabine's beautiful naked body on top of mine.

Sabine raised her juice soaked face in front of mine. "Your cunt is so sweet my darling." She kissed me and I tasted myself for the first time. It was sweet.

She moved up in bed and cuddled with me. Just like when my sister and I used to cuddle under the covers. As I held Sabine my mind went elsewhere. Was everything I was taught a lie? How could being with a woman be a sin? This was as close to God as I had ever felt. Was I a Jezebel? Was God going to punish me? Maybe there wasn't a God watching over me. My protector, Commander Osboune, was dead, and I was now enslaved on a pirate ship with no means of escape. Why should I trust what I knew when Sabine was proving it all false?

"Let me love you Sabine."

"That's the spirit my darling." Sabine rolled over on her back and put her arms behind her head. She was a vision of loveliness. I started with light kisses on her lips. Her lips were so soft and sumptuous that I could have stayed there. But her hand gently pushed my head lower to her breast. I used my hand to lift up her breast and licked the underside of it with the flat of my tongue.

"Ohhh, you naughty girl. Keep licking there and then suck on my nipples."

I licked her velvety orbs and then moved to her nipples, sucking each one into my mouth, feeling the pebbly texture of the nipple and the areola and the smooth skin beyond it. I felt empowered when I discovered I could control her movements and her moans with my mouth. She started talking in a foreign tongue that I later learned was Romanian. She was praising my oral skills as well as my beauty. I couldn't get enough but her hand again pushed me lower.

She had a bushy patch of curly jet black hair. There was a musky aroma that was unquestionably her mating call. I was drawn to it, inhaling her sweet smell and feeling the damp heat rising from her sex. I tentatively stuck out my tongue and dipped it into her honeypot of desire. Her thighs trembled and her hand pushed me tighter against her sex.

"You sweet whore. You were meant for this," growled Sabine as the pleasure she was feeling from my tongue had slurred her speech.

She was right. I was meant for this. I loved being between Sabine's legs, having her control my every move, and to give and receive pleasure that I had heretofore been unable to comprehend. Why did I discover my true self on a pirate ship with a crew of despicable people? Or were these people truly despicable? I just loved one and had her love me. There was no North Star of morality. Here on this ship it was people stripped down to their basest desires.

The next day Sabine tended to her duties and then returned to her (our) quarters at dusk. She sat me down on the bed and told me the unvarnished truth. "I like you darling. I'm afraid that I should tell you that you probably don't have much time here on this earth. Life's hard on this ship. My first wench was taken by the crew and after they had their way with her she either threw herself into the ocean or was helped. My second died in my arms after a battle to take a merchant ship. My third died of cholera at our home base. You're my fourth. But get outside my care and you won't last two minutes with the crew."

Those were not reassuring words to me. I couldn't last more than two minutes in the ocean so it was a foregone conclusion that I had cast my lot with Sabine. I had no training in defending myself and the ability to speak French or to play the piano would probably not protect me from a rabid group of men. Why must I be experiencing the greatest pleasures of my life while in a cauldron of sin with a life expectancy of a year or less? Will God protect me here? Like Commander Osbourne, who was hacked to pieces by these animals?

I was convinced I had only days to live. I would explore every avenue of debauchery I could. I now had no one to save my honor for, did I? I would ordinarily take my meals in my cabin with Sabine. Sabine had brought back dinner with her ration of Bumbo (which is a mixture of dark rum, lemon juice, grenadine syrup and grated nutmeg). As we were eating Sabine shared more about herself and also shared her Bumbo with me. I had never had the pleasure of consuming alcohol so the warm glow in my tummy and my 'devil may care' attitude motivated me to drink almost the full ration.

Sabine told me about her childhood in Romania, living as a gypsy. She was sold as a kitchen wench and used by men and women alike to satiate their carnal desires. After a few years of abuse she ran away, ultimately finding herself on the docks of Marseille. There she fell into a group of pirates led by Captain LeFrancois. She first started as a deck hand and eventually became an indispensable part of the crew.

"Women were kind to me and were the most considerate lovers. I didn't enjoy the company of men and eventually swore them all off about five years ago," recounted Sabine. She was clearly educated in how people made love.

I was so lightheaded from the drink. My vision became blurred and my speech was slurred. Somehow being on a pirate ship wasn't that bad. I was with a woman who had introduced me to unimaginable pleasures. And there are never any guarantees in any manner of life that you'll live beyond tomorrow.

"Sabine, I want you to show me every way you know of to love another woman."

Sabine looked at me with uncharacteristic warmth. "Yes, my little whore. I've travelled to many ports and learned an abundance of ways to pleasure a woman. I'm going to enjoy showing you everything that I know."

Sabine had me kneel on the bed with my knees spread apart. She carefully unlaced my bodice and slipped my dress so it was draped at my waist. She loosened my undergarments so my bosom was fully exposed. I was wearing pantalets but there was no material covering my private parts to allow me to more easily relieve myself. She extended one hand and squeezed my breast causing a current of pleasure was wash across me. She kneaded my nipple and then suckled it, pulling her head away to lengthen my nipple, then swirling her tongue around it. I was swooning with pleasure when she took her other hand and slid it between my legs, sawing it against the fountain of desire leaking from me. Sabine's experienced hand brought me to the pinnacle of pleasure and then down again. Then up higher and higher until I cried out in ecstasy, not caring if any of the crew heard my screams of pleasure.

I was softly crying. Sabine brought her face to mine and asked why. I told her, "Because this is the happiest I have ever been in my life and I don't care if I don't live past tomorrow. You have shown me pleasures I would surely die for."

"Despite what I told you, I wish you a long and happy life. I know enough about the love between two women to last us a decent lifetime."

"Sabine, I hope I live long enough to experience it all." She held me tight, with my belly warm with drink and the love of a woman.

Chapter Three

Day became night became day on the endless expanse of ocean. I discovered the life of a pirate is mundane, if not boring, punctuated with periods of temporary insanity. This was the boring part. Fights were routinely breaking out between members of the crew as nerves became frayed from the monotony. Sabine stayed close, her dark piercing eyes and stern facial expressions showing concern that the crew unrest could bubble up to our level. I couldn't help but be on edge.

But that evening Sabine's mood became brighter. "Elizabeth, I traded a part of my ration of rum for two men guarding our door until morning. It's time for another lesson."

My eyes became bright. I was the eager student. "Please Sabine." I couldn't wait. I shed my clothes as if they were on fire. Sabine was right behind me, now naked as well, as she put her arms around me and we tumbled into the bed. Her hunger was as great as mine. Instead of tenderness there was unbridled lust. She pushed me on my back and raised my legs over her shoulders, her lips just inches from my maidenhead, kissing my thighs to and fro. She used her tongue to lift me up as it touched my sex. My hips undulating with the beat of her tongue. My head rocking back and forth, my voice groaning, begging and pleading. She had lit a fire within me. Where I thought her hand had brought me to the heavens, I discovered her hand was the moon but her tongue and lips were the stars. Were there no limits to the pleasures that can be bestowed upon a woman?

I felt as if I were in a cloudburst of pleasure, so overwhelming was her womanly touch on my quim. She manipulated me as if I were a marionette, dancing to the tune played by her tongue and fingers. I was now the wild animal on this ship, grunting and moaning, pawing at the sheets, and shamelessly offering my breasts and sex for her amusement and my pleasure. I believed that I would do anything to please Sabine.

As much as my mind resisted such a notion, the pangs of lust within me we slowly evolving into feelings of affection. My daily anxiety and fear was also matched by my blossoming love for Sabine. A soft and caring person underneath a hardened exterior of a predator. I did not know that a person of such contradictions existed. She could be tender and loving one minute and then on the deck of the ship cursing and cavorting with the crew as if she were a man possessed of wickedness. How did I come to this point? Could I really love such a person?

It was not too long after my lovemaking with Sabine that she had to excuse herself to tend to a task she had forgotten to perform. I was on the main deck emptying the contents of our waste bucket when a crew member, Josiah, offered me assistance. He was someone I occasionally saw when I was topside. He was wholly unattractive, short and stocky in stature with a ruddy complexion and a face that featured a long jagged scar running about four inches on his right cheek, several missing teeth and a nose that must have been broken at least a dozen times. He took the bucket from me, emptied its contents and rinsed it out with fresh seawater.

"Here Miss. All clean for you." As I extended my hand to take the bucket handle he grabbed my wrist.

"Now shouldn't you be sayin' a thank you to your friend Josiah?" His eyes gleamed when he made this request. A shiver went up my spine.

"Thank you Josiah."

He didn't let go of me. "Now that's not a proper thank you from a proper lady. Give me a kiss to settle this debt." He leaned forward and started to press his lips against mine, as I pushed backwards to avoid them. He was much stronger than me and was soon able to force his lips against mine. I used my hands to beat against his back but that just emboldened him to push further. With a few members of the crew watching me struggle, Josiah put one of his hands under my petticoats and grabbed the fleshy part of my buttocks. As I was manhandled by Josiah I saw a cutlass flash out of the corner of my eye. Then a scream of agony and a spurt of blood on my cheek as the cutlass buried itself deep in Josiah's prying arm. He let go of me, howling as he gripped his injured arm. Sabine grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me to our quarters.

"You were lucky my little whore. Josiah would have raped you right there on the deck if I hadn't come back." She wiped the cutlass on her sleeve, leaving a large red stain on it.

"I'm so sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You can't stay in your cabin all day. I'll need to teach you how to defend yourself."

I was sitting on the bed breathing erratically as the shock of Josiah's unwelcome advance paralyzed my mind and body.

"I'll need to go see the Captain. He may not be happy with me." Sabine left me,

Sabine returned a short while later, grim faced. "The Captain is taking half of my share of the next prize and giving it to Josiah. He felt that I could have addressed the situation without slashing Josiah's arm. It's not clear whether he'll ever have use of his left arm again. He also said I will receive ten lashes from the Quartermaster."

I already knew about the terrors of a whipping. I held Sabine closely. "I'm so sorry I caused this to come upon you."

"It's not your fault, and I would do it again to protect you."

My eyes watered. "You are so kind to me."

"I want to be."

That afternoon the Captain assembled the crew on the main deck. Sabine was lashed to the main mast. The top half of her body was exposed so her back was bare and her breasts were jutting out in front of her. Josiah, with his arm heavily bandaged, was among the assembled men. The Quartermaster brandished a bullwhip and wasted no time in administering the first lash. As the thong of the whip was brought back there was a collective gasp as the popper was brought around and exploded against Sabine's unprotected back.

A welt instantly appeared and a small trickle of blood made its way down her back. She did not cry out.

The second lash soon followed. Another welt and another trickle of blood. I could hear her groan as she felt the bite of the popper. My stomach was in knots. I wanted to take her place.

The remaining lashes came in quick succession, crisscrossing her back, and leaving it a bloody mess. Sabine was unable to suppress her screams, though with the last two lashes she was so exhausted she was unable to move or utter a word. I wanted to die with her.

When they finished the Quartermaster threw a bucket of seawater on her bloody back. Sabine screamed at the top of her lungs and then slumped down, surrendering to unconsciousness. I ran to her to comfort her. This was twice now that I had caused another person unimaginable pain.

I held Sabine for a long time until her eyelids fluttered and she opened her eyes.

"You're safe my love," she whispered.

"I love you Sabine," I declared.

"I would gladly take a thousand lashes for you," she replied.

I untied her and with the help of another crew member dragged her to our quarters. It took a week for me to nurse her back to health.

She shared much more about her upbringing in Romania. She was one of eleven children. Her parents were poor and at a young age she was taught to beg and steal. At age 13 she was sold to white slavers as a kitchen laborer. She learned how to use a knife at a tender age to fend off unwelcome advances. She didn't lose her virginity until she was nineteen, and then on her terms. She didn't choose the lifestyle she was leading, rather it was one of the few options she had for survival.

I was sympathetic to her situation, and innocently asked, "Why can't you leave right now?"

"I've signed an Oath of Allegiance as a member of this crew. About a year ago I signed on for another two years and my service won't be done for another year."

I thought it was a silly code of honor among thieves, but Sabine took her oath seriously and never considered breaking it. She only knew the sea and the Captain and crew, as undesirable as they might be, were her only family until she had met me.

Thankfully the whipping did not inflict any permanent injuries. Once Sabine was able to walk again on her own she immediately immersed me in training to learn how to use a knife and a cutlass. At the end of the training she gave me both a knife and a cutlass. "Make sure you carry them at all times."

Sabine had resumed her normal duties and I was alone again in the cabin. I was in love with Sabine. But was it true love? Could two women be in love? Had I disavowed the church and a lifetime of teachings about what was right and wrong? My swirl of confusing thoughts was punctuated by a roar so loud I feared that a hole had opened up in the ocean and our ship had been swallowed whole. Our ship was being attacked by the heavy cannon of an English frigate. As cannon shot burst nearby the timbers around me splintered and there was a hole in the side of the ship that included the wall of our room. I was exposed to the open air and as the ship pitched I suddenly found myself off balance and slipping off the ship. I was soon in the water and flailing as the ship sustained more cannon fire. I was fully clothed and armed. The clothes were now soaking wet and threatening to pull me down under the turbulent sea. The waters were boiling with debris around me and I was somehow able to grab a splintered timber. I was floating in the warm waters when I felt my arm tugged upward by a Royal Navy sailor in a rowboat. I'm sure I looked like a drowned cat. I joined several other Dauntless crew members on the rowboat. Shivering, I was given a rough dirty wool blanket to drape around me and was brought back to the command ship. Once at the ship, we boarded the ship and were put in chains and escorted to the captain of the ship on the main deck.

The captain, festooned in his battle dress, was an impatient man who was flexing on his toes as if he were preparing to run a race.

"Tell me who you are."

I wasn't fully prepared to answer this question. I didn't think they would believe I was Captain Watkin's fiancé, having just been captured as a crew member of the Dauntless. I decided it best to remain in the shadows. "Chantal," I replied.

The man who pulled me out of the ocean said, "We found her in the water armed with a knife and a cutlass."

The Captain dismissed me. "She's an armed combatant and a prisoner. Throw her in the brig with the others."

I was dirty, wet and in chains and wholly unrecognizable as an English woman of a noble birth. I was put with a whole cadre of captured pirates who were guarded in a makeshift brig. It was a truly grim sight. Many of the men in the room were nursing untended wounds and some were close to death. All of the men were exhausted. There was a putrid odor and little natural light. We may have well been in Hell.

I asked them what became of the Captain and Sabine.

One spoke, "The Captain is dead. Saw it with my own eyes. Stabbed in the heart he was." Another said "Aye, but I didn't see Sabine." Others shook their heads. I was dismayed, being separated from Sabine and in the hands of a group of men that yesterday could have, if allowed, raped me and threw me to the fishes. Now they were my only means of survival. I was grateful that no one made a move against me. There were at least twenty of us in this room and the mood was definitely on self-preservation instead of pleasures of the flesh. We were sequestered in this room as the ship set sail. We took turns standing and sleeping and used buckets provided by the sailors for our personal needs. There were hard biscuits distributed as food and only a half ration of water. I lost track of time, but it seemed to be a week when we entered a port in a lush tropical city. By then I was dirty, emaciated and exhausted.

We tied up at a dock and were led as prisoners, chained together, across the gangplank and onto the jetty. A sailor who was courteous enough to extend his hand as I stepped off the gangplank told me where we were, "It's George Town madam. It's the capital of the Cayman Islands."

The Cayman Islands. My betrothed was in charge of the local government. I was safe. But was I? I was a resident of a pirate ship and one of the prisoners, having been captured fully armed. Would my story be believed? And what had become of Sabine?

The docks were bustling. There were scores of men scurrying about loading and unloading cargo. There appeared to be a fair amount of new construction as most of the structures at the dock looked new. We were led chained together down a long cobblestone street to the local prison. The prison was already full so all of us were put five to a cell when the cells were designed for two. We stood in our cells most of the time and took turns sleeping on the two beds. It of course was hot and miserable. We were packed tight like that for a week before they started conducting trials. I could see through the barred window that they had erected a gallows outside of the prison and that they were testing it with bags of grain. Once satisfied that it was working the first of the prisoners was tried and hanged. There were four men hung the first morning of the trials and they were left to dangle on their ropes until nightfall. It was not comforting to see my potential fate.