There were seventeen children - boys and girls of every color from between six and thirteen - crossing the plank slung between the two ships.

Most of the children looked terrified. Some were crying, others merely unhappy. One or two even looked resentful. But they were all naked and helpless, with their hands bound behind their backs.

The children, all connected by a rope at their necks, were unsure of their footing as they marched at sword-point across the narrow plank. The ones who dared to glance down at the heavy green sea lapping noisily between the two ships saw several of the bodies of the men who had died defending their ship from the pirates.

In terror, one small white girl stopped in the middle of the plank. She would have halted the whole movement but a sharp tug on the rope at her neck from the small black boy in front forced her to continue - though it made her stumble. It looked, just for a beat, as if she would fall and perhaps drag most of the others with her to a watery grave. But she staggered on, to the jeers and laughter of the pirates watching and the no doubt relief of the bound children who witnessed her hesitation.

'Get them below, Mr Simmonds,' said the captain watching from close by the ship's wheel. 'Unharmed. They'll be worth some ransom in port if they're in one piece. And I mean one piece.'

'And the ship?' The pirate ship's second in command grinned through broken, yellowed teeth, enjoying the sight of so many naked children, in particular the pubescent girls with their small but prominent tits, but he nodded at the ship alongside. 'We takin' that hulk in tow?'

'You're right, it is a hulk. There'll be nothing of value as a prize. Strip anything useful or valuable then burn it.' The captain turned away but stopped. 'Oh yes, and Mr Simmonds, I do mean the children unharmed. Put a guard on the brig and if anyone tries to molest the children I'll have him flogged and put on a desert island. Then bring me the leader.'

'You think they'll have a boss among them? They're only kids.'

'Indeed I do think that. There's something about that ship that intrigues me. One of those kids will speak for them all, hopefully in English.'

'Aye, captain,' grinned the number two, swinging himself forward to issue instructions. Already one of the crew had got hold of a delightful teenager's breasts and the captain wouldn't be pleased. Less so that one of the small boys was having his small prick made hard with some deft rubbing by a cackling, bearded old man.

A wager, no doubt, to see if he was old enough to cum.

---

From the captain's cabin window there was a perfect view of the blazing hulk drifting away behind them. A knock at the door announced the leader of these children had been found and the captain turned from the view, calling out: 'Enter.'

Spanish Jake, one of a number of the pirates who spoke the language, pushed a naked young teenage girl into the cabin. The child had her hands tied behind her but more coarse rope had been added around her chest and upper arms, reducing her opportunities to struggle. The captain noted that the child's emerging breasts had not been bound over but the rope had been tied to squeeze the small tits outwards, making the brown nipples more prominent.

The girl, black haired but pale skinned and blemish free which suggested she was from a wealthy family, was also hobbled by a short rope between her ankles.

'This 'un's the one you'd be needin' to see, captain', chuckled the man. 'Quite a minx she is. Damn nearly had Hodder's only good eye out.'

'She speak English?' The captain studied the girl's face. Proud, defiant. Very pretty. A look of intense surprise on the youngster's face.

'Dunno,' snorted Jake. 'Spanish, but I don't reck-'

'You - you are a woman.' The naked, bound girl exclaimed as she got over her shock at what she saw.

'Ah, I think we have found she speaks the same as us. I am indeed a woman,' said the female captain with a laugh. 'But I am still captain of this good ship.'

Anger replaced the amazement on the girl's face. 'Good ship! You are foul pirates, scum of the seas! Vermin of the Devil! You raid honest travelers and kill those who loyally serve the King of Spain. You murder and unnnthh! Hmmmff!'

Spanish Jake, prepared as any good pirate should be, wedged a knotted strip of cloth between the girl's teeth. He tied off the gag behind the child's raven hair, reducing the Spanish girl's stream of invective to a series of muffled sounds. The girl shook her head angrily but the gag was there to stay.

'Tie her legs together and then leave us,' said the captain. 'She won't do me any harm and when she calms I may allow her to speak. Oh, Jake, an extra swig of rum for your foresight in bringing the gag.'

'Aye captain,' grinned the man as he ducked down and swiftly retied the ropes at the teenager's ankles so the child's legs were clamped tight together. He nodded to the captain and retreated from of the cabin, leaving the two females alone.

'You disappoint me,' said the woman, turning back to the large window, watching the burning ship slip further behind them. 'I wanted to speak to the leader of this band of children and find out the story of how so many young people come to be in one place at one time. It would also help if you could tell me you point of departure and your destination.'

The naked, bound girl grunted something unintelligible and glowered at the captain.

'However,' said the woman as she turned back from the window and settled herself in the large chair that occupied one corner of the cabin. 'Let me tell you of me and this ship.'

The girl gave the merest nod but her dark, beautiful eyes were still angry.

'I am called Captain Beth Black and the ship, the way sailors are with these things, is the Black Beth. Rhymes with Black Death which pleases them.' The woman in the chair grinned at this seafaring humor. 'Oh, you were surprised when you saw me. A woman in command. But you shouldn't be. For anyone to be Captain they have to have respect and skill. I have been sailing the Caribbean for years, since younger than you, so I know these waters and I know how to keep unruly men in place. All too easily, when you tickle their cocks.

'Just as you, dear maiden, have a Queen in your homeland so too do these men see me as their ruler in what is their homeland, this ship.' The woman, dressed in black cord breeches, black leather boots and a brown leather jerkin, waved her hand at the cabin. 'But we have a King in England who authorizes us not as a pirate, but as a Privateer. We harry the King and Queen of Spain's ships and take what my crew need and pass on whatever we think best to His Majesty in London.'

The gagged girl looked far from convinced and her eyes had not lost their hostility. But her shoulders had dropped slightly, as if accepting there was no escape.

'But whatever our cause your people have us as cut-throat pirates.' The woman shrugged as if it was unimportant. She resumed: 'Yet I and the English crown have a need, not just for Spanish gold or the fruits of the New World, important though all that is. But for information. The Admiralty has charged me and hence the Black Beth with finding out information that will win lands for colonies.' A pause as the woman savored the pleasures of viewing a naked, pretty teenage girl bound and gagged before her. She looked over the child, the way the ropes bit deep into her soft, young flesh, the way her bare breasts and nipples swelled out between the hemp rope, the way her slit was begin to fuzz over with fine, black hair.

'And here dear lady - for I have no doubt you are of a noble household - I have an intriguing question: what were you doing here in this sea? Seventeen children on a ship that carried nothing of value - no gold, no tobacco, no wines - crewed by a handful of largely drunk men, a relatively poorly armed ship under the Spanish flag which had a crew who yelled oaths in French and Italian but died without honor.'

A sadness flickered over the gagged girl's face. Her eyes dropped to the floor.

'The only cargo,' continued Beth, 'if such, was a hold full of naked children. Oh, and yourself and your sister, I am told. Clothed and comfortable, unlike the others who I understand were chained up like animals. Let me see,' the woman picked up a sheet of paper from the table by her elbow and read it. 'Six boys, nine girls in chains in the hold. Some African, some European. One girl and one boy, I believe, to be from Araby.' The paper fell from the captain's fingers and it fluttered to the floor, sliding in the air almost to the bound girl's feet.

'So you see, I am intrigued. No ship's log, no manifest, no marked chart. A cargo without a port. I could therefore take what I want as a prize and dispose of the rest. And if you won't tell me what I need to know I could ask your younger sister.' A long pause. 'Forcibly.'

The bound and gagged girl blinked, but not - noted the captain - entirely in sheer terror at the thought.

'So will you tell me what I need to know?'

The girl hesitated but shook her head. The captain stood with a snort, straightening her jerkin. 'Mr Simmonds!' she roared.

There were footsteps on the stairs to the cabin and the man with broken teeth came in with a cursory knock. 'Ready, captain,' he chuckled, eying the tied girl as if she might soon be his to play with.

'Bring our guest aloft and we'll show her what we do with those who don't cooperate.'

The second-in-command picked up the helpless girl as if she was a sack of grain and slung her over his shoulder before following the captain up and onto the deck.

Whatever the girl expected to see when she was set down, it was not this - though on reflection she shouldn't have been surprised what English pirates did to their captives. On the deck many of the crew were gathered in a half circle by one side of the ship. Men mostly, but some women among them, the girl realized with a chill. Didn't they always say women pirates were the worst?

The assembled were talking among themselves with an air of expectancy and excitement and it was easy to see why: a sobbing and scared young naked girl was suspended upside down by her ankles from a yard arm slung out over the ocean.

The bound girl next to Beth gave a scream into her gag: the girl hanging upside down over the side of the ship, hands bound tight to her sides, was her younger sister.

The small girl, from where she was hanging, could see her older sister. In a desperate, pleading voice the suspended girl called to her in Spanish. Beth stood and listened with a smile. She knew enough Spanish to know that the small child was begging for help, for her sister - Maria, apparently - to somehow save her.

Maria, clearly forgetting the efficiency of Jake's gag, was trying to shout back though her inarticulate noises merely brought laughter from the assembled men watching.

'How pleasant, this exchange. But let's show our guest what we do,' said Beth. Simmonds, nearby, cackled and ordered a muscular black man holding a rope to lower the girl, headfirst towards the foaming green waters.

Maria's gagged pleas became more urgent as the dangling child disappeared from her view.

'Take her to the side-rail,' said Beth coldly and Simmonds obeyed, scooping up the tied teenager and pushing her forward over the side so she had a clear view of what fate awaited her sister.

Maria screamed incomprehensibly as she saw her sister lowered towards the choppy waves. The small child was struggling and twisting but lacked the strength to lift her head more than a few inches, Already the spray was lashing the child, soaking her long black hair. In a few more moments the child's head was being struck by the tops of the highest waves.

'Lower her a little more and hold her there,' ordered Beth from she had joined the weakly struggling Maria, still held forward over the side-rail by a grinning Simmonds - a man clearly aroused as he was rubbing his crotch (and his obvious erection) against the struggling, naked bottom of the bound girl.

'Permission to fuck this one's ass, cap'n,' chortled the man.

'Only if she doesn't cooperate,' said Beth. She leaned her head close to Maria's. 'See, your dear sister isn't being lowered any more to a watery grave. At least not just yet.'

It was true: the dangling child was no nearer the water and though the occasional large wave buffeted and almost engulfed the child's head, making her cough and splutter rather than scream and plead, she was being held steady.

Beth whispered. 'The danger, Maria, is that Amos, who holds the rope may grow tired and let it slip.' The teenage girl, held as she was, had stopped trying to shout and listened. Even Simmonds, temporarily, had stopped rubbing himself obscenely against the bound girl's ass cheeks.

'You see, child, I would get good money for you and your sister at any port where they need young girls to service men, but my men could satisfy themselves with you before we find harbor. Aye, even the women I have in my crew can be cruel in their lust for pleasure. Then we trade you as young whores. Of course, I may choose to let your sister go well before then, but how should I do it? Amos is strong but even his grip grows tired. Or maybe I rest him, haul the child up, allow some of the crew to take her in any hole and then sling her back over the side. I understand Amos, once he's cum, is nowhere near as strong for a while though he does have a long thick cock that takes a while to satisfy.'

Maria nodded. She understood fully.

'So, do you wish to talk?'

Maria nodded. She was hauled up from the side, away to the cabin, not knowing what was happening to her sister. Her last view of the deck was Amos, still holding the rope. But for how long?

Simmonds put the girl down and took out the child's gag. He left without a word, having dropped the sopping cloth on to the table by the captain where she had settled back into her chair.

'You are murderers without a soul,' glowered the ungagged girl when they were alone. 'Killing my sister Concepcion will gain you nothing.'

'But I have you talking, true? And will do so to save all you can?'

Maria nodded, looking daggers at the woman reclining in front of her.

Beth laughed. 'Oh, child. We are the people we have to be. We sail under a harsh sun in dangerous waters against a foe who would hang us if we survived grapeshot and cutlass. We have few friends that we can trust and get no thanks for all we do. So we take our payments and pleasures as and where we can.'

Without warning the woman suddenly unfastened her jerkin. She was wearing a coarse white shirt under it with a flounce of silk at he neck. She stood, in front of the girl, and swiftly unbuttoned it and peeled the shirt off. Her chemise, under it, was thin and the woman's full, heavy breasts showed through the taut, sheer fabric.

'See this?' The woman lifted her hand and ran it lightly over her breasts, making her nipples harden and press out through the thin fabric. 'French made, as they have the best silks I can find on the high seas - or at least from those I plunder. Understand child that I am a woman, a real woman, and I enjoy the fineness of good clothes against my flesh. The leathers are serviceable, even helping reduce a sword slash. But a woman wears good clothes near herself.' Beth paused. 'Indeed as you will have done.'

Without a word the woman unbuckled her pants and let them fall, kicking off her boots. The thin chemise fluttered gently, doing nothing to hide her breasts and below its hem, a carefully shaved vagina. Bald, for close pleasures. Keeping her eyes on the girl and watching her reaction, the woman smoothed her silk garment down. 'See, I am as good as naked as you are,' smirked Beth.

Maria, despite herself, gasped. The woman had a good figure, trim with muscle honed by exercise and fighting but a shape that most men would salivate over. Beth stood hands on hips, one leg at an angle as she rested her weight on one side. Both looking in command and sexually inviting.

'Do I not look attractive?'

The bound girl's head swam. She didn't know what to think.

'I have to be brutal, but I can be giving. It all depends...' The woman grinned at Maria's confusion. She leaned forward and indicated a scar on her right cheek. 'See this? Courtesy of a young Spanish officer, good with his sword and trained well in Cadiz or Valencia or wherever. He however thought it as a duel between gentlemen and cut me first. I am far from a gentleman in every way as you can see. I ran him through at once. You see, it was him or me.'

Maria didn't say anything. The scar, white and deep, wasn't entirely hideous. In some way, it added to the woman's mystery. To her beauty. The captain had a wild, brazen beauty that would have served her well as a barkeeper's wife in any port. The kind of beauty that drew admiration from men and women alike.

'But I thank that man who carved me, whoever he was. He gave me power. This mark shows I can fight, and my men - and women - know I can kill swiftly. So, would I have sacrificed your sister to impress them, let them know I am as cruel as they?' The woman shrugged and settled back. 'I do what I have to do,' she added darkly. 'We shall see.'

'Concepcion is innocent. S-she is only nine.' Maria couldn't take her eyes off the near naked woman.

'Ah, you confuse age with innocence. I have known eight year old girls, in Port Royal or anywhere in Jamaica, who would slit your throat while sucking your sex. An ingenious and athletic way to earn money. But you are from aristocracy and know nothing of such things, though your lords and ladies may well do.'

Maria looked shocked. But not as shocked as Beth thought she might.

'We are all Privateers at heart, so stay your look of disbelief. We do the royal bidding for gold and pardons, or position and influence. Or even sex and sadistic pleasures.' Beth got up and picked a bottle from a shelf nearby, along with two glasses. 'The Spanish fight well because they have the same blood as we have, the same desires and needs. Forget religion and language: we are all ambitious. We all have cocks and cunts that need pleasing. So we will drink a toast to all who sail, fight bravely and lust for delights.'

'I wouldn't share your foul English beer,' spat Maria.

'Beer? Oh good Lord no! This,' said the woman as she poured a tawny, sparkling liquid into the two glasses, 'is a very fine Sherry. Looted from a Spanish galleon off Antigua. Alas, my stocks run low and unless the harvest was good last year and more bottles shipped out to the new world I may have to resort to an inferior Port or, heaven forfend, a French claret. But Brandy is, well, quite something else. Now that I would kill for.'

'You make this idle talk while my sister is about to drown.'

'Concepcion will not drown. Unless she wriggles free of her harness. Her greatest danger is being hit by a piece of driftwood but we sail in open waters. She should be safe for now.'

'And then?'

'That depends on what you tell me.' Beth brought both full glasses to the tied girl who stared, confused, as one was lifted to her face. 'I assure you, it is a good vintage Sherry. You would be proud of your countrymen's skills in creating this.'

'I shouldn't drink it,' was all that the girl could say.

'But you will. You are naked and scared and this will help fortify you.' The glass came up to the child's lips. She drank, eagerly, despite herself.

Beth smiled as the girl noisily drained the glass. She drank some hers as well. 'Now, Maria. Your story please, before I take you to my bed.'

'What?' Maria's eyes widened in fear.

Beth laughed. 'I have needs, too. You have needs.'

'I do not understand -'

'Oh please, I saw they way you looked at me when I removed my jerkin and shirt. Aristocratic girls like you have to be versed in lesbian sex. I imagine your nanny will have trained you well, or an older aunt. Perhaps your school tutor.'

'No!'

'Enough training to make you look longingly at my breasts when you could. As you still do.'

Maria blushed and wanted to object again but bit her lip. Yet she blushed more when the captain returned to her chair and sat, legs deliberately spread wide, her sex open and all too visible. The pink lining, the obvious clitoris, blatantly on show.

'Madam, you are showing yourself too much,' said the girl, both averting her eyes and sneaking a look.

'No. I reveal as much as I need to. We do, those who control others. But you can not so this is your delight. Mine shall wait. After all, for now although I see your small sex is becoming hairy and it almost on show, your legs are clamped together. Cruel to ourselves, are we not? I could order you bound, legs apart. Perhaps on your back, knees to your chest. But I deny myself such an obvious delight. How strange I am!'

Maria felt her face burn. 'Madam... This is-'

'Beth. Call me Beth, I insist,' smiled the woman. She had put down her glass and was rubbing her cunt with her forefinger. Sighing as she became aroused.

'You are captain and my captor,' said the girl with a superhuman effort to keep her eyes on the woman's face rather than on the captain's bulging, hard nipple breasts or her open, inviting sex flower. 'You know I have to submit to you. Pray why do you need me in your bed? I will tell you all I can and then you can return me to the prison. The ransom is what you want.'

'Perhaps it would be more enjoyable if your actions came from the heart.'

Maria grimaced but looked away.

'Ah,' laughed Beth, springing up. 'You have a lover back home, a child like you who waits for your letters. Coded, perhaps, to disguise your feelings from prying eyes. So many spies at court or in noble houses, I believe. How will you write her on this? How will you phrase your growing urge at seeing a mature woman so open, so available and you all bound and helpless?'

Maria looked close to tears, face distorted from a morass of emotions.

Beth persevered. 'Tell me her name, my divine angel. You can console yourself of her absence in my arms.'

'There is no one!'

'Untrue, dear sweet. Should I flog the truth from you? I can. Indeed, I can even do it myself.'

Maria wrestled with herself for a moment before she gave way. 'She is not at home. She perished on the ship you took.' Anger again blazed in the girl's eyes, but a real personal anger. 'My cousin, Gabriella, was accompanying me and Concepcion on our journey from Port Espana. Gabriella taught me in her bed.'

Beth shook her head. 'I would not be too sure who we killed.'

Maria stared, a look of disbelief on her face. 'But - you slew people. I didn't see her taken.'

'And why should you? If she survived she will be held on the Black Beth.'

'If? You do not know?' Doubt joined the disbelief on the girl's face.

Beth shrugged. 'I did not tally how many we took.'

'But the numbers,' the girl nodded to the sheet of paper still on the floor. 'You counted the captives, the children, even though you counted wrongly.'

Beth gave a short laugh. 'Ah yes, you know we counted wrongly, yet you did not indicate earlier. So shall I tell you how many we took from the "San Christobal" alive?'

Maria nodded.

'Four boys and thirteen girls below the age of fourteen. Plus we acquired a young lady. Twenty, perhaps. I am sure she may well be your lover. She certainly wanted to know if you were safe. Not, I hasten to add, having the same concern over your sister.'

Maria looked up hopefully. 'Gabriella! Is she well? You haven't hurt her?'

Beth shook her head. 'Not yet. Though I fancy though some of them men may hurt her if she resists.'

'Resists?'

'They could be playing games with her. Have you heard of Weatherwatch? Oh, probably not - it's more a game for rough sailors with a woman at their hands. Two dice, a number to each player as well as each opening on the woman: her ass, her cunt or even her mouth. If she's fortunate, they will roll a double twelve before too long.'

'Double twelve?' The girl gulped. 'W-what will they do then to her?'

'She'll be tied naked to the front of the ship, legs wide apart and tits bound tight, below the figurehead. You see, it's called Weatherwatch because the poor unfortunate woman sees the weather coming first. You have to hope it's not a storm.' Beth poured herself another drink. 'So here we have it. Concepcion dangles over the side hoping Amos doesn't grow tired, or develops a need of stretching her cunt with his huge cock, poor Gabriella is buggered - that's throwing the seven in the game - and then finds herself on Weatherwatch.'

'But I said I'd tell you everything.' Maria, close to tears, sounded desperate. 'We were sailing with more than a dozen child slaves for the Governor's palace. Um, he's my uncle - he would pay a good ransom for me and my sister. More for Gabriella. You can have the rest. Please let me and my sister and cousin go.'

'When you come to my bed.' Beth drained the glass. 'We can discuss what you want then. In time all will be safe.'

'But you can take me like this! I'm bound like a mere slave. I can't stop you.'

'No, but you can accede to me gladly so you are free. Thus I can play with you and you me.'

Maria understood. 'Then free me and use me. I will do as you wish. I will not resist.'

'No, that would be too easy. Privateers like it harder.'

'I don't understand.' Panic and fear was in the girl's eyes. What else did this demon want?

Beth approached the girl, taking her long black hair in her hand, twisting it. 'You're hurting me,' cried the girl.

'Indeed. I may hurt you more, in good time. But for now, you have the advantage of me. I will give you that, to see if you are what I think you are.'

'What am I?' Maria was more confused than ever.

'Listen carefully,' said Beth, face close so the girl could feel the woman's breath on her cheek. 'This is my need, my secret. I am captain. I rule, they obey. They know I prefer young girls. They do not know what I need when I'm alone with them.'

'Which is?' Maria said through clenched teeth. Beth hadn't let go of the tied girl's hair. If anything she had tightened her grip.

'You will tie me to the bed and use me. You will be free. You will use me as I would use you.' Beth put her other hand on one of the girl's small but protruding breasts, working it between strong fingers, teasing the nipple. 'You will do what you can to hurt me and make me beg for sex, which you will provide.'

'Ah,' said the girl.

'Ah yes, indeed.'

Maria smiled for the first time. 'And this was how you started as a pirate captain, if I am not mistaken.'

Beth didn't say anything, but didn't let go of the girl's hair. Neither did she let go of the tit she held tightly.

'I can see how you took command,' continued Maria, giving a small gasp as the woman's fingers pinched her hard nipple. 'You were like me and you dominated your captain: she was a woman who had your needs. The captain, for I imagine it was a she, needed to give someone power over her.'

Beth didn't respond. She simply moved her face closer to the Spanish girl's and kissed her passionately.

When they broke, Maria laughed gently. 'Now untie me, senorita, and let me tie you. We will begin.'

'Indeed,' said Beth.

The ropes fell away and Beth scooped them up. The girl rubbed her wrists to get the circulation back. 'I should warn you, I may be a girl but Gabriella has trained me well. She too enjoys the bonds.'

Beth lay back on her bed at the side of the cabin, a light in her eyes. 'How will you tie me, little one?'

'You will see,' said the girl, picking up the ropes. 'First, face down and arms out to the top of the bed.'

'Face down?' Beth looked puzzled. 'But you cannot play with my tits like that.'

'But I have no need of that. You have two holes to play with. My version of Weatherwatch,' Maria chuckled as the woman obeyed. 'As well, you may feel your chemise on your chest, you may rub your nipples against the silk while I do what I want.'

The girl took no more than a minute to tie each of the captain's wrists securely, stretching her out. Then she told the woman to open her legs and did the same. Only then did Maria acknowledge Beth's position by slapping her firm, round ass several times, exposed where the silk undergarment had ridden up. Beth did her best not to cry out as the blows rained on her buttocks, but had to make a noise.

'The gag, I think,' said Maria, happily. She reached for the still wet cloth, made sure the knot in the middle was tight and wedged it into the captain's readily open mouth. Carefully, she bound it behind Beth's head. Then she resumed her spanking until both cheeks were bright red and the English woman was wriggling, tears rolling down her cheeks.

No doubt she is wriggling, thought Maria, to excite her tits on the silk.

Then the teenager inserted the first of her fingers, not into the woman's gaping pussy, but into her tight anus, wriggling it in deep. 'Gabriella has this thing for assholes,' whispered the girl. 'So I have too.' A second finger slid in, making the captain scream into her gag. The scream was even more energetic when a third finger went in.

'With training,' said Maria quietly, 'you will have my hand, my fist in you. Both holes, too.'

'Uhhmmth,' nodded Beth, more tears rolling onto the pillow under her face.

'Let's see, shall we?'

'Ummth! Arrgth!' was all the captain could groan as she clenched her fists above her head and bit on the gag hard.

---

Concepcion was brought to the cabin, as Maria ordered. The child wasn't untied, as Maria preferred.

Beth was dressed again, sitting gingerly on the edge of the chair, all too aware of her sore asshole. Maria had the leather jerkin on, long enough to cover her slit, her young ass. She stood to one side, hands behind back as if they were tied there, as two crew men brought the shivering, bedraggled and frightened young child in to the cabin. They went, without being ordered, giving the seemingly bound thirteen year old only a brief glance.

In Spanish, the child blubbered something to her older sister, who dismissed whatever it was with an imperious wave of her hand.

Concepcion looked stunned. She looked even more so when her older sister used the wet cloth strip to gag her, the knot between Concepcion's teeth forcing the child's face into a contorted, agonized look.

'She asked if I would free her, let her be like me, but the gag I think tells her enough.' The older sister toyed with one of the nine year-old's nipples, making the little one wriggle and gurgle in wide-eyed protest.

'And your lover, Gabriella?' The captain was amused to see the child treated like this. 'What do you plan for her? Will she join us yet?'

'No. There's a ransom to be won for her. For the time being she can play Weatherwatch with the crew, unless you want to take her place.' Maria grinned at the captain as she pinched the child's sore little nipples hard. 'Or you will one day, when I take over this ship as captain. Then it will be Maria Black. Or in my language, Maria Negra. However, I prefer Capitan Maria Reina.'

'That isn't black. It's queen. You would be queen of the Spanish Main,' Beth said, admiration in her voice.

'So you do speak Spanish?'

'A little. Just as I speak a little Portuguese, a smattering of French. It helps when you're torturing your captives. As I said, information is more valuable than gold - if it leads you to more.'

'I will teach you to understand, from the mouth of my sister here. She can tell you what instruments of torture are as , how much they hurt. She will be a good teacher, when not gagged.'

'Torture is universal. It is action, not description.'

Maria snorted a laugh. 'Like this!' She slapped her little sister's face above the gag, who burst into muffled howls of shock and pain. 'Of course I will begin with my dear little sister here, to show I am serious. I am not sure she will follow my example of a life on the open seas and when we sell her back home she would have quite a tale to tell.'

'Good. There are many things on a ship that are ideal for punishment,' nodded Beth. 'Though I suggest we could maroon her. Tied to a palm tree on a desert island is a good way to leave them. After you have collected the ransom, naturally.'

'How delightfully cruel,' snickered Maria, her small nipples hard with arousal at the idea. 'I should love to do that to her myself, and kiss her sweet little lips goodbye.' As if to demonstrate, she pecked the child's gag and winked at the horrified small girl, who may not have understood fully but sensed this wouldn't be good for her.

'Ah, you have however much to learn about the ways of piracy.' Beth looked pleased.

'I believe you said you were a Privateer.' Maria raised an eyebrow to the captain, who was trying to get the circulation back into her own wrists.

'Same difference, a juggling of words that pleases the court and amuses diplomats.' Beth shrugged. 'We are always one step ahead of the Royal Navy anyway. There are no guarantees whose side we may be on tomorrow.'

Maria took hold of Concepcion's soaking wet hair and pulled the child towards the bed. 'We will start with a thorough spanking of this one, and then introduce things into her little rear. A candlestick, perhaps? Or an empty Sherry bottle?'

Beth chuckled. She watched Maria tie her sister to the bed, face down and little legs wide apart. The child was struggling, trying to plead into her gag but that would do little good. Standing, hands on hips as she watched, Beth recalled how she was like this with her former captain. Once.

Perhaps Maria would indeed be Maria Reina one day. But there were many battles to fight before then. And no good captain surrendered her ship without a sword fight.

As she watched the wriggling small girl gradually become still under the web of ropes, she could see Maria's sex where she bent over the bed, underneath the jerkin. Beth nodded to herself, recalling the taste of it, pressed into her face as her full tits being lashed by Maria holding the wet cloth. Beth felt a surge in her sex and felt good. Instinctively she touched the scar she had on her shoulder, close to her neck. She remembered that was a good, close thrust. The last that the old captain, Annie, had made.

It would be good to duel Maria one day, if she learnt the ways of the pirate, if she was any good. If and when the Spanish child was ready to be queen. She would be queen with a scar, though. A scar on her pretty little face, another on one of her small tits at least.

If the girl wasn't good enough and lost, Maria would probably be bound to a plank. Naked, whip marks all over her, a leather gag keeping her quiet. Then lowered into the sea and dragged behind the ship

Until Amos got tired.