There were times, when duty on board the Temperance permitted, that Captain James Matthews would go to the slave cages in the hold and stare at the mass of girls and boys who were sat or lay in the straw behind the bars. They were a sullen bunch, as he expected, and the stench of unwashed bodies - even as young as this - combined with the urine and excrement made it an unpleasant visit.

Yet it was necessary visit for he had to see for himself that they were still alive, and reasonably well cared for. His crew would feed and water them and even beat them if they needed it. Indeed there were always several children with gags locked in their mouths to stop them wailing or screaming or even objecting to whatever was done or simply because of where they were. Matthews' visits occurred because it was his business to get as many of these brats across the ocean to the new world. The healthier they were and the more of them that survived, the better the return at the slave market in the new world.

But it was, this time, because he was looking for someone. Despite the protestations of the young Lady Marian Pensford chained up in his cabin that she was telling the truth, she was a little too glib and easy with her words for his liking. That she was an educated 11 year old and wise beyond her years didn't surprise him, but something was not right. Now he would come to the slave cages to scan the huddled or stretched figures of the naked children and try to see what nagged at him.

Matthews had contemplated he might beat the truth out of Marian, but while lashing a helpless girl was a possibility (and making the red weals on her pale, thin pre-teen body were a pleasure he liked) he liked sex with her even better. Whipping her was not quite as pleasurable as fucking her arse or her mouth and so far she had co-operated fully in whatever he did to her. Beating her to an inch of her life would put a barrier between them he did not want.

The Captain was pleased with arrangement his smith, Cobb, had come up with for the red-haired girl he kept in his cabin. The man had fashioned a collar for Marian's throat and made a longer chain to the wall ring, and though she still wore ankle chains they had links added to allow her to make a longer stride (or open her legs wider) and though he had insisted she should still wear the manacles at her wrists her hands were now positioned in front of her and they were no longer attached to the wall. At the Captain's request Cobb had made three more things. One was akin to a scold's bridle that encased the girl's head in iron bands with a spiked tongue piece which would be used if the child suddenly became abusive and needed to be silenced. While there was still the inevitable leather bit gag for the girl (a small concession to her when he bumfucked her) there were times he might want her to wear the head piece because it pleased him to see a young girl in as much ironware as possible.

The other two things Cobb made were a separate, shorter chain, fastened next to the long one that Marian would wear most of the time (and one with a collar like the first which could be closed with a brass padlock) and a series of pegs that could shorten the long length of Marian's collar chain that kept her attached to the ship's bulkhead. This was an ingenious idea as it meant the girl could wander at most as far as the Captain's bunk bed so the man could have sex in relative comfort but also be shortened so she might have to stand tight to the wall as either a punishment if needed or as a visual pleasure for Matthews while he worked on the charts. Her chain could thus also be adjusted on other pegs so she might have enough length to sleep in the straw on the cabin floor at the end of the long table or a little more so that the girl might join the Captain for dinner.

Lady Marian Pensford made an engaging companion to share his meal but sometimes, out of cruelty, the Captain locked the girl in her bridle so she might watch him eat but not partake herself.

He was grateful the sea for the most of the first part of their long journey was relatively calm, at least for the Channel and then past southern Ireland and out into the eastern Atlantic, and the 11 year old girl - she had confirmed her age - was not given to sea sickness. It took time for the small children chained up in the slave cages to get their 'sea legs' and not throw up. But this Marian was made of sterner stuff and even when they did encounter a storm she did not complain and did not vomit. In many ways she was the ideal companion for the Captain. Not least of which was her willingness to be fucked in rear and mouth, never using her teeth though the threat hung over her that the first bite on the Captain's cock would be her last action of any kind for he had a knife at her throat as she sucked his balls empty.

Often their conversation over dinner, when the girl was not gagged, or even after he had fucked her pretty bottom and they lay in bed, was about the nature of his business. Marian was bright and had indeed been well educated; her father before his lapse of judgement over cards and the subsequent disastrous wager had allowed, she said, his children to listen to the talk of grown ups and they were not excluded from polite conversation at their once stately home. She learned much of sailing from the visits of a sea Captain known to her father, Lord Pensford. A man called Captain Gordon, though Matthews knew of no such sailor. He was, Marian said, a man who also took an interest in slaves and so she understood the need for them. She just never imagined she would become one.

She also knew something of the benefits of good exercise through another of her father's visitors, a forward-thinking doctor by the name of Harting, and pressed the Captain to allow the slaves briefly released from their the cages so they might enjoy a limited time on deck. She argued, forcefully, that so many weeks cooped up below decks was injurious to their health. His profit was in their well-being, she said, and small numbers could be allowed on deck at a time and as they were ankle-chained with heavy iron they would not run amok. If it would help, she said, indicating her own long chain that kept her fastened to the wall, that they might have a long chain run between their legs to prevent them from anything more than a small walk and some fresh air.

"And what of you?" Matthews asked as he listened to her argument. "You have not been topside for two weeks. You too will be, if you are correct, suffering from that same lack of exercise."

Marian inclined her pretty young head a little and sighed. "I would love to see the sea and hear the wind in the sails, but I am yours to do with as you wish. Plus, I have some exercise in your cabin when you allow a longer chain and I do eat well."

"When allowed," said the Captain, remembering how the day before he had the girl gagged and she could only watch him eat as she stood silently, chained to the bulkhead.

Marian nodded. "As I say, sir, I am your property. More over, I am one of out some ninety--"

"Eighty nine now." The Captain interrupted. "We had a death yesterday among the slaves."

Marian's eyes widened and a look of horror crossed her face. At that moment it confirmed what Matthews had suspected since setting sail. Marian cared for someone in the slave cages and though she asked casually who it was she looked relieved when told it was a young boy who succumbed to some unknown illness. So, thought Matthews, this girl has lied to me in some way. She says she is alone yet there is someone she cares for among the caged slaves. The question was, who? She had said she was the youngest of her family and there were no other Pensfords here with her, but this was perhaps not true. Of course she could have formed an attachment to some other slave. It wasn't unknown for the older boy slaves to try to fuck a younger female slave or even for two females to form a lesbian relationship. Immature in some ways, but an intimate friendship that would afford them some quiet relief which boys and girls fucking could not achieve.

"You care for someone," said Matthews, leaning back in his chair and studying the naked red-head. Marian denied it, other than she said what was left of her family wherever they were, but she fiddled with her long neck chain in a way that suggested she was not happy to lie, and she averted her yes from his. The Captain had seen lying aplenty before this. Sailors were given to untruths if they thought they might escape discipline or extra duties or even if they had committed some crime like stealing from a shipmate. There were signs, he knew, that told him whenever a lie was being employed. Marian was exhibiting, for all her calm outward appearance and reliance on clever words, she had some secret.

"No, I care for them all," said Marian, less than convincingly when she looked back at him. "I know how hard it is, being a slave waiting to be transported. It's the least I can do for them," she added.

As he fucked the girl's bum later he whispered in her ear that she might help him organise the slaves into what he called walking parties. No more than ten and under guard, with ankle chains linked. She could assist him by selecting which ones were well enough to come up on deck and if need be make formal representation on their behalf.

"And am I sir to retain my chains as I go about my business for you?"

"Of course," said Matthews, smiling a little at the slight note of hope in her voice that she could be on the deck. "With your scold's bridle, to show you are special, I fancy." At that he drilled the girl's arse hard and denied her a gag to bite on, instead clamping his hand over her mouth as he buggered her. She would still provide him with plenty of sex between her duties, he reasoned. More importantly, he would watch who she took an interest in. Better still, he would watch who she brought out in her first ten slaves on to the deck. He reckoned if Marian cared for someone that person would be the first out, or among them. The only doubt he had was whether she had reasoned he was suspicious of her, and she would leave her 'special one' until later. But he knew it was a female, as she had not looked alarmed at the news a boy slave had died.

Unfortunate in one way there were more females than males on this voyage so if it was a female who interested Marian, Matthews knew he would need to watch them all and try to determine if his pet slave was favouring one ahead of others. There was also the alarm that he might see on one face at seeing Marian locked in a scold's bridle. The chances were that the female in question, and he was quite sure it was a girl among the slaves who Marian cared about, would give some signs of concern at seeing the 11 year old in a profusion of iron. He would bet on it, except a good ship's master like Matthews knew the penalties of wagering, even with himself.

-----

The crew stared at the naked 11 year old with red-hair and the fact she was burdened by chains at wrist, ankles and wore a heavy cage on her head with what was clearly a tongue suppressor in her mouth. The red-haired girl had gone below to make her selection from the slave cages and now she stood on deck, swaying with the roll of the ship and watching as ten slave girls - among the youngest in the consignment - clambered out of the hold and gathered in a small huddle while their ankle chains were attached by Cobb. As Marian couldn't talk to them she held her hands out as best she could to try to indicate they could follow her round the deck in a line.

Matthews from where he stood at the front of the bridge watched keenly, trying to detect which of the first lot on deck were drawing Marian's attention and which was reciprocating. But there seemed to be no special glances and when the ten were returned to the hold and the next ten brought out, they were mostly boy slaves and Marian showed no more interest in them than the first group. For a while Matthews thought he must be mistaken in this. No group showed anything but a mix of resentment for their condition, curiosity at the ship and its crew and the inevitable fear at the sight of so much heavy green water and the foam flecked waves under a wide sky. Terrifying enough for a landlubber adult not hampered by chains, but for a child it would seem overwhelming. No wonder one of the handlers, in order to get them to even begin to exercise, had at times to resort to hitting them with a length of knotted rope.

Matthews scratched his beard and wondered if his imagination had gotten out of hand. Masters of slave-trading ships in the far reaches of the ocean should not be given to flights of fancy, and he cursed himself under his breath for his stupidity as groups of slaves came and went. However, he was a man not easily dissuaded and he stood his ground and watched.

It was only on the last group, which by dint of illness to a few whose sea-sickness prevented them from getting up, an injury to one girl who had tried to hang herself and the fact that several of the weaker slaves had died of some condition or illness in their time since setting sail, that Matthews finally saw who the object of Marian's interest was.

There were three girls and one boy who came out on to the deck for the last exercise spell, and the Captain had immediately dismissed the male as the point of Marian's interest. Of the girls there two who were 12 year old twins with dirty yellow blonde hair and a much younger female, no more than eight. She had short hair, badly and hastily cut at some point, and it was black. But at the roots of the child's hair was a distinct red. Matthews leaned forward and stared hard, and then understood. The eight year old had been disguised the only way anyone could by cutting her locks short and dying it black. Indeed the girl had pale skin that matched that of the Lady Marian and though the girl in the scold's bridle gave no sign to the younger child, she had stood closer to her as the small group paraded round the deck in their connected ankle chains. As the short line passed the bridge, Matthews could clearly see that the youngster's black dyed hair was growing out and red roots showing.

"Master Mate," called the Captain. "Halt those slaves and be so good as to prepare a noose on the yardarm. I would need to hang one of these scurvy knaves as a warning to the others."

The line stopped and stared, shocked at the Captain, but the greatest shock was on the face of Marian. There was panic on her face and she started towards the bridge.

"A problem, Lady Marian?" Matthews sneered. "You would think the master of this fine ship cannot hang who he wants? Out here, your Ladyship, there is only the law I see fit to enforce and the only justice is what I dispense. But don't worry, I can afford the loss of say a young slave."

Marian started forward again at this but was seized by one of the crew.

"Very well," the Captain called to his officers. "Belay that order and strike the youngest female from the line. Bring her, and Lady Marian, to my cabin at once. And tell Mr Cobb I would have need of his services. Return the others to their cage, if you would."

----

"You were clever," said Matthews, as he regarded the two naked and sorry looking females in front of him. The Lady Marian, still in her scold's bridle and wrist and ankle chains stood alongside the younger child, who looked close to tears. Despite the fact she too was gagged, though with a leather bit gag (and had her hands bound behind her) and in spite of the fact she had black instead of red hair, Matthews could now see the clear family likeness between the two girls. "But, alas, Lady Marian - if that is your title - your effort to fool me was not good enough. I have found your secret, and she is indeed pretty. Your sister, I assume?"

Marion gave the child next to her the briefest glance and then slowly nodded, though with the weight of all the iron on her head that was understandable.

"I see," said Matthews, feeling triumphant. "This wretched child was thrown in the same slave prison as you and you sought to protect her in some way. Yet I had split you and her apart, so you dreamed up persuading me to allow the brat exercise. Well, my compliments to your clever way of think--" he stopped as he saw Marian shaking her head. Slowly with the weight on her slender neck. "You are telling me I am wrong, girl?"

Marian nodded. With the cruel iron tongue suppressor filling her mouth she made no attempt to speak, and her nod had to suffice.

Jim Matthews felt a surge of anger, but then calmed himself a little though not entirely. He had seen through this plan and now had two little whores to fuck, he had decided. They could spend time in the cabin (and there fastenings for two collars) and Marian could watch him bumfuck the younger girl, or have the sister watch the eldest one take his thick cock in her bumhole. That would be punishment enough for lying, and a pleasure for him too. Yet the way Marian was staring at him through the iron bands of her bridle made him wonder what exactly he had got wrong.

The Captain stood and advanced on the older girl. The younger one tried to take a step backward (though Marian stood her ground) only for Matthews to grab the younger one by the throat and pulled her up the iron cage on her older sister's head.

"Can you see her, Lady? Can you see how I have her? I am the master of this ship, as I told you! I will not be lied to by a whore like you." With an angry gesture he flung the younger girl aside and, unable to prevent herself falling, she stumbled and fell heavily to the cabin floor. For a second a deep anger flared in Marian's green eyes, and not for the first time Matthews felt a sense of shame. He had no need to do that, he knew. The man grabbed Marian's bridle and twisted her head, almost breaking the child's neck. But the moment he began he stopped and fumbled instead for the brass key to the padlock that held it closed. In a moment he had it undone and tossed it aside. "Now tell me the truth or so help me I will flay the flesh from your bones!"

"Gladly sir, if you will let me tend to my sister's injuries first." She glanced at the smaller girl lying curled up nearby, and a small red stain of blood was spreading on the planks. Matthews nodded and stood aside so Marian could attend to the girl on the floor. Then, feeling even more guilty, he fetched a bowl of water and a torn sheet so Marian could wipe the blood from the cut on her sister's head that thankfully had stopped bleeding. Then she helped the crying, moaning girl to sit up and used part of the sheet as a bandage, winding it round the girl's forehead. "I would be grateful, Captain, if you would allow me to remove my sister's gag. She needs air, and I promise she will not scream, will you Theresa?"

Theresa blinked up and shook her head, then bent it so Marian could undo the knot at the back. The older girl put the removed gag down carefully, away from the small stain of blood that was now soaking into the worn planking. "I expect we may need that gag later," she said.

"Yes," said Matthews belatedly, watching all this and wondering how he allowed a child to take control. He couldn't even recall if he had given some sign that the gag could be removed, yet Marian had gone ahead anyway. He watched as Theresa was helped to her feet and, of all things, led to his bed! For a moment he felt a surge of anger that his position was being undermined (or he was, in nautical terms, becalmed) and he wanted to demand that the young girl get on the straw provided. But he didn't move and felt helpless. He knew, even after these couple of weeks at sea, that Marian was not to be trifled with. She had a way of putting things, even when he was using her for sex, that made him think twice.

"Theresa needs to rest," said Marian, covering the girl up with a blanket. "You may want to fuck her later and she will have to recover for that. She has not been fucked before so will need to be at her best."

"What?" Matthews gasped. "What is that you say?"

"Sir, your needs are to fuck me in the bum and I suspect fuck my sister in her front hole before she becomes of child-bearing age. I think if she can recover then you will enjoy her--"

"You lied to me," snapped Matthews.

"I told you a necessary untruth, sir. There was a reason, which I will explain. Forgive me, but I had to gain your trust and get my sister out of the cage. When I saw your crew member fitting a second collar and chain provided I reasoned you knew something of my secret, but I may have been wrong. I assumed that I had given good enough service with my bum and mouth but I was also aware you may need another in here." Marian paused. "Perhaps have me and another girl have close liaison, as my father wished me to do in his drunken moments."

"Your father is dead--"

Marian held up her hand. "No sir, the last I heard, he was very much alive, as indeed was my mother." Marian paused. "Sir, I feel weary in my chains from all the exercise and events, so may I sit down and tell you more?"

Matthews snorted. "Seems to me you make all the decisions you wish, and merely use my office as Captain to get what you want." But he motioned for the 11 year old to sit and he took another chair at the table. "I do however require the truth now, woman, for make no mistake I can have you both keelhauled, which I doubt you would survive."

Marian nodded. She looked tired and glanced back at her sister, who appeared to have fallen asleep. "The truth... yes. Sir, I regret I chose to withhold all of it from you, but it was necessary for me to gain your trust."

"I am the master of this ship," snapped Matthews, but he wasn't as angry as he might have been.

"You are, sir. Of that there is no doubt. But, while some of what I have told you is true -- my father is indeed Lord Pensford and he did indeed lose a gamble at cards - he is not as far as I know dead, though little would surprise me. No, his wager was to have me and my sister given to Captain Gordon and the family home of Sandbridge was never in danger, unless my father is even more foolish than I thought. But I could not contemplate seeing my little sister," again she looked at the sleeping little girl, "put to the sword by that vile man. I confess I did not want it either."

"You mean, you would rather have me fuck and use you and your sister Theresa on a ship bound for some hellhole rather than have some other man do it in a pleasant house with well-appointed gardens?"

"No, Captain Matthews. Fucking is a natural preoccupation of men, and as ordained women - even little girls - are there to be fucked. That much is well-known, even among my class. But the man who would take me and Theresa was a murderous madman who would have delighted in skewering us as he had congress with us. I had heard he liked nothing more than to, as he would say, blow his load inside the arse of a dying female with her belly hanging out from a rapier thrust, and all the way swinging in a noose for good measure. That was the fate for me and Theresa if my father lost. He did, and so I took my sister away before we could be given to Mr Gordon. We ran, knowing that we would as likely end up in a brothel or a slave prison. Trust me, you are a kind man compared to Captain Gordon. You may hang people but it is because they have broken the law of the seafarer and not because you can only grow hard and slake your sexual thirst that way."

Matthews stared at the girl. "You are telling me you sacrificed everything to escape this man? Could you not reason with your father, or your mother say, to go to the authorities?"

"A nation that enslaves children, sir, would not be much interested in what a young child would say. The courts have no authority in such matters, not with such people and the influence they wield. Gordon is a man of some repute, a national figure in some quarters whose sly words would have overwhelmed mine."

"So how do you know of this man's reputation and what he would do?" Matthews sat forward and looked intently at the red-head.

"I found out from his maid. She had witnessed it twice."

"His maid? You are a Lady and yet you listen to the gossip of servants?"

Marian shook her head. "Sir, I confess I lay with the maid. She was 16 and pretty, and she taught me much of the ways of love. Aye, even with a fake cock she secreted under her skirts - a phallus she called it, and for my bum. I was her lover when her duties permitted her to tarry with me while that odious man Gordon stayed at Sandbridge. She would come to my bed and we would play at what I understand to be the sapphic arts. Her name was Mary and I loved her. But she had secretly seen this captain Gordon do what he did before and she feared for her life, as I would. She had overheard Gordon saying he had arranged a perverse game of cards with myself and Theresa as the prize. A prize he would win. Mary bade me run and indeed helped smuggle me and my sister out. We three ran away together, but we were arrested as vagrants by a town constable and rather than face a return to what must be death, and I imagine Mary's fate was sealed too at her actions, we vowed to be silent and allow fate to take us where it would. Alas, I was separated from Mary at the slave prison and I have not seen her since." A cloud crossed Marian's young face. "I fear for her, though she may well be out of Gordon's reach if she is chained in a ship like this."

Matthews rubbed his chin. "Sixteen you say? Hmmm, she would be considered too old for many slavers, selling in the new world. She would like as not be sold back home. If this Gordon visits the slave auctions, looking for girls to skewer as he fucks them... I fear she may merely have postponed her fate. There is nothing anyone could do for her."

"Unless she is bought by a kind family," Marian said, her voice full of hope and tears in her eyes. "I can but pray for that."

"If I were a religious man, I might agree," Matthews said, thinking of the times in storms where he had silently prayed for life and safety. "But tell me, why did your father undertake such a wager?"

"To save the family home. The prospect of a debtor's prison was very real for him, but Gordon had according to Mary agreed to make a gift to pay of my father's debt in return for a gamble at the card table, with me and Theresa as the prize. My father would be grateful for the monies offered, and if he had been drinking would not have been able to play a hand that ensured he kept two of his daughters."

"And the cards were rigged?" Matthews laughed. "Forgive me, but that smacks of an old sailor's trick. Many a seaman has fallen for that one, and then found the gift taken from him as he walked away on drunken legs."

Another cloud crossed Marian's face. "I had not thought of that," she said. "In any event, Gordon did not get what he wanted with two small girls, so I imagine he would have come to some other arrangement. Perhaps my mother or older sister Louise, who is 19..." Marian shuddered at the thought.

"They may survive," said Matthews, "if this man cares only for the younger female. So why not tell me all this at first? Was the truth then so painful?"

"No sir. I needed many miles between us and Gordon. I could not take the risk of you turning the ship round or even dropping us at a port in Ireland. Gordon has connections there and even a ship of his own. I stare out of the stern window of your ship and fear seeing the sails of his ship on the horizon."

"I guarantee under the articles of the sea I would treat him as a pirate. We have a few guns to protect ourselves and plenty of my crew have experience with a cutlass if need be."

"Sir, he is a naval officer, and his ship will outgun yours." Marian said quietly. "He serves the King and no one will ask questions if he sinks your ship out of reach of land. Distance for now is my one hope for our survival."

A quiet settled on the cabin, broken only by the light snoring of Theresa in the bed. It was Marian who broke the silence after a few minutes. "I imagine sir, you now have need of my arse." She stood and bent over the table, legs as far apart as her ankle chain allowed.

"No Marian, I have need of your throat," sighed Matthews as he stood. "Open wide please and I will put my emission into your willing mouth. I will not hold a knife to your neck this time, but you know the consequences. Both you and little Theresa will be fed to the fishes should you forget your obligation. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir, and you have no need to ever have a knife to my throat. I will swallow all you have and more, as Theresa will too when I teach her." With a smile the red-haired girl got on her knees and took Matthew's thick cock in her mouth, where she sucked gently and rolled her tongue over the swollen head.

"By the fuck of a shark," gasped Matthews as Marian's tongue tip flicked against his pisshole. "You are good."

Marian merely looked up and let her eyes do the smiling as she dutifully sucked and licked while Theresa snored gently and the distant horizon behind the Temperance lay wide but empty.