Chapter One

 

The pirates came an hour before dawn. The first that Caroline knew of their presence was a hammering from below. She looked out of her bedroom window and saw a dozen men throwing their weight against the front door, which gave way with a huge crash. The men poured inside. Caroline rushed to bar her door, but she was too late. A burly man pushed it open. She threw herself against him, scratching and punching, but he was far too strong. He grabbed her wrists, and she spat in his face. With a curse the man hit her across the face and for a few moments she was stunned. When she came round, her hands had been tied behind her back and she was over the burly man's shoulder being carried downstairs. Just then Sir George came out of his room, crying out, demanding to know what was going on. A man hit him on the head with a cudgel and Sir George fell to the floor. Then Caroline was outside. It was a warm night, fortunately, because she was clad in nothing but her silk nightgown.

She was carried down to the harbour, where there was a great deal of noise. Drawn up on the quay were about a dozen girls, some like Caroline in their night attire, and one or two completely naked. Some of the men of the village were still trying to put up a fight, but they were being overwhelmed by the pirates' superior numbers and armaments. Caroline saw two men lying on the ground bleeding. Then she was put down and made to stand in line with the other girls. She could see the pirate ship anchored just outside the harbour, and two longboats moored alongside the quay.

After a few minutes the captain of the ship appeared. He was a tall man with thick, glossy black hair down to his shoulders and a gold ring in his ear. He wore a blue satin coat and a black cocked hat. He strode up and down the line of girls, looking them over, stopping at one, a very plump girl from the village called Molly. Caroline knew her well; she was a dairymaid. The captain turned to the man beside him.

"What fool put this fat girl in line here?"

"I, I don't know, sir," the man answered nervously.

Suddenly the captain pushed the girl violently, right over the edge of the quay into the water below. Caroline knew the water was deep there; she hoped the poor girl could swim.

"Right," said the captain. "Get the rest of these girls loaded and we're off."

The men herded the girls into one of the boats. Several of the girls were crying, and looking tearfully back to the village, doubtless fearful of the fate of their loved ones, and terrified of what was to come. The boat was soon full and cast off, two men rowing it out to the ship. There the girls climbed a rope ladder up to the deck, where they stood shivering, the naked girls covering themselves as best they could. Caroline was all too aware that her nightgown, which looked so pretty in candlelight, was hardly adequate cover. She could feel her nipples erect from the cold; a glance down saw them standing out clearly through the thin material.

Soon the girls were forced down a hatch. The space below decks was dark and smelly; the girls sat or lay on the floor. Caroline saw some empty sacks in the corner. She was cold and threw one of them over her shoulders. After a few more minutes she heard the sounds of the ship being made ready to sail. Kidnapped by pirates; it was a terrifying prospect. She had heard enough tales to know what was likely to be in store: transport to some distant lands and sold into slavery, doubtless for sexual purposes. Caroline's customary pluck had all but deserted her as she contemplated the future. Rescue seemed a remote prospect; the best she could hope for was to try and survive her ordeal, whatever it was.

The ship creaked and rolled as it met the open sea. Caroline dozed, but when she awoke it was still dark in the hold. For hours the girls lay there, some quietly sobbing. Caroline desperately needed to relieve herself; she climbed up to the hatch and banged on it but there was no answer until a rough voice shouted at her to be silent, or she would be sorry. She crept back down the stairs and squatted in the corner. It was shameful, but she suspected worse humiliations were in store.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed. Caroline was getting hungry and thirsty. Other girls had been forced to relieve themselves as she had, and the hold now smelled bad, yet no one up above took any notice of their plight. Time passed and things began to get desperate. Caroline's mouth was parched and her stomach griped; something had to be done. Caroline knew it was up to her. She was the squire's wife; the girls of the village would naturally look to her for guidance. She must not let them down.

At last the hatch opened. Outside, she could see, it was broad daylight. A man climbed down. He seized one of the girls roughly and hauled her to the top of the steps. Caroline tried to pull the girl away. The man turned and hit her full across the mouth. Caroline staggered and fell. The man pulled the screaming girl up through the hatch, which was then closed again.

Caroline feared the worst. How many of those men above would use the poor, defenceless girl? But what could she do? After half an hour or so the hatch opened once more and the girl was pushed down into the hold. She collapsed on the floor, sobbing bitterly. One of the girls asked her what the men had done, but she could not or would not answer. Caroline knew she must do something; she climbed the steps again and began to beat very loudly on the hatch. At last a voice above called out for her to cease.

"Take me to the captain. I demand to see the captain," she shouted. Then she hammed once more on the hatch. At last it opened. A hand reached down and grabbed her by the hair, hauling her up.

"What's all this noise?" demanded the man who held her. She could smell the rank odour of his body sweat. His hair was lank and tangled, and he had only one eye.

"We are going to die down there if you don't look after us," Carline snapped. "Now take me to the captain or there will be trouble."

Perhaps it was some inherent respect for a woman of quality, or simply a wish to pass her on to someone else, but the man let go of her.

"Come on, then," he said gruffly. He led her down a gangway and along a passage to a door at the end of the ship. He knocked and a voice said to enter. Opening the door, he pushed Caroline through, following her.

"This one is making a lot of noise, captain," he said. "Do you want me to shut her up?"

The captain looked at Caroline with curiosity. "Leave us," he said to the man.

The captain sauntered to the end of his cabin and stood by the porthole, looking out. Caroline could see that he was a handsome man, with fine blue eyes and a pointed black beard. Something about his manner suggested that he was, or had once been, a gentleman. He turned to her with a sardonic smile.

"So, you have something to say to me?"

"If you keep us locked up the way we are, we won't all survive the journey. It's almost pitch-dark down there, there's no air, no facilities for washing or to relieve oneself, we have had no food and we are dying of thirst. What's the point of going to the trouble of capturing us, only to let us die? I presume you have some plan for us in mind?"

The captain's expression changed. Did he look concerned?

"I'm willing to do anything you want, if you will only give the girls some relief," Caroline said.

"Anything?" He raised an eyebrow quizzically.

Caroline blushed. "Yes, I think so."

"But," said the captain, "that is not such a bargaining counter as you believe. Because I could do anything I wanted with you, whether I elect to treat those girls better or no. You are totally in my power, are you not?"

Caroline thought for a moment. "But if you try to force me I will kick and scream and the likelihood is you will damage me in some way. A girl with a black eye or a broken arm is less valuable, is she not? Whereas if I willingly allow you to have your way, there will be more pleasure in it for you. Unless," she added, looking him sternly in the eye, "you are one of those men who delight in using force. Are you a rapist by choice, captain? Are you no better than the ruffians in your crew?"

He laughed. "I don't care to discuss my propensities with you," he said. "But there is something in what you say. And I admire your spirit. I like a girl with pluck."

"Don't patronise me," Caroline said without thinking, then wished she could take it back. A more respectful tone was likely to pay better dividends.

"Now I admire you even more," he laughed. "Very well, now what is it you propose to do for me that will gain your request?"

"Whatever you have in mind," she said.

"Then come here."

She approached warily. He took her hand and pulled her close, then with his other hand started to lift her nightgown.

"No," she said. "First you have to agree to my terms."

He laughed again. "Which are?"

"The girls will get an hour on deck each day, during which time they may wash and relieve themselves, privately, of course, and another half an hour in the evening. They will be fed, and they will not lack for water. Plus one other thing?"

"What?" said the captain with a sigh.

"One of the girls has already been taken out and violated. That must stop."

The captain scowled. "My crew are the scum of the seven seas. They have been at sea for two months. If they know there are pretty girls on board and they are not allowed to touch them, there will soon be a mutiny."

Caroline considered this. "I see the problem," she said. "Let me try to find a solution."

"You're going to take on the whole crew yourself?" The captain smiled.

Caroline blushed again. "No," she said firmly. "But I have something in mind."

'Very well," said the captain. "So we have an agreement. But one more thing on my side. Whatever I have you do for me today will not be the end of it. I reserve the right to use you every day if I choose."

"But not for above half an hour," she said firmly.

"Granted," he said. "Now raise your skirts and show me what I have been bargaining for."

Caroline slowly lifted up her nightgown, almost to the top of her thighs. The captain signalled for her to go higher. Blushing once more, she lifted the hem up to her waist. The captain gazed at what was revealed, then made a gesture for her to turn around. As she did so she imagined his eyes boring into her, consuming the beauties of her bared bottom.

"On your knees," the captain said.

Caroline got down. The captain stood over her and unfastened his breeches. "Take it out," he said.

Caroline rummaged inside and soon found his cock. She grasped it in her hand, feeling its warmth and hardness, then pulled it out into the open and stared at it. For some reason she could not help comparing it with Henry's, the only other cock she knew well (discounting that of her husband). It was perhaps no longer than Henry's, but it had a pleasing thickness in the shaft.

"I'm sure you know what to do," the captain said. His voice was thick with desire.

Caroline pulled the foreskin back, revealing the swollen glans, a dark red colour. She bent and took the captain's cock in her mouth, wrapping her lips around the head just below the rim and sucking gently. She ran the tip of her tongue lightly over the little hole, trying to push it in. The captain grunted, with what sounded like pleasure. When she had first sucked Henry's cock she had gone at it with energy and enthusiasm, believing that this was what was expected of her. But he had persuaded her that a slower, more sensual approach was preferable. He had taken a lot of trouble showing her exactly how he liked it, and eventually pronounced himself fully satisfied. But, he warned, different men have different tastes, so you have to learn to adapt. "You think I'm going to be sucking a lot of other men's cocks?" she asked, playing the coquette. He'd smacked her hard on the bottom and forced his cock into her mouth again to keep her quiet.

She took the captain's cock out of her mouth and licked slowly around the head, just below the rim. Then she ran the tip of her tongue down the back of the shaft, along the little ridge that went down to the base. With her free hand she gently squeezed his balls, and was rewarded with another grunt of pleasure. Running her tongue back up the shaft, she took him once more in her mouth, this time sucking harder. She began to move her head up and down, taking the cock in deep, then all the way back out till the head rested on her lips, before covering him once more with her mouth. She had already decided that she would make him come this way. Doubtless if things continued as they were the captain would eventually want to penetrate her, but for a reason she did not quite understand she wished to delay that a little longer. Was it loyalty to Henry? Or even a vestigial sense of propriety as the squire's wife? She surely ought not to be in too much of a hurry to give up her virtue.

And yet, she said to herself as she worked the captain's cock, moving her head a little more quickly, your virtue went a long time ago, my dear, the moment you gave way to Henry's advances. And how long was that after she had married Sir George? Hardly long enough for decency, if there was ever decency in such a thing.

She began to rub the shaft of the captain's cock in time with her sucking of the head. Already she could sense the tell-tale signs of an orgasm building. She judged that he was past the point of no return, the point at which he was still capable of voluntarily withdrawing his cock, in order to have it serviced in another way. She had control of him now.

The captain suddenly yanked his cock from her mouth with a groan and a stream of semen shot from him. It splattered on Caroline's face, on her cheeks and her brow; fortunately she had instinctively closed her eyes. A few drops fell on her lips; she stuck out her tongue and licked them off. Semen was strange stuff. Henry had told her the taste of it could vary according to what a man had been eating, and from man to man. The captain's was salty, and not offensive.

She wiped a drop from the side of her eye and looked up at the captain. He reached into the desk behind him and brought out a small pocket handkerchief, smelling of lavender. He handed it to her and she wiped her face. She took a sniff of the handkerchief and found the acrid odour of semen now prevailed. Caroline got to her feet.

The captain gave her a little smile. "You've done that before," he said. "You're good."

She said nothing. It wasn't part of her purpose to have the captain admire her talents. But at the same time, the welfare of her fellow prisoners demanded that she be amenable. Her body and the pleasure it could give this man were all that stood between them and a grisly fate. Perhaps if she played her cards right she could wring more concessions from him. Thank god it was the captain she was required to service, and not his scrofulous crewmen.

The results of Caroline's efforts were immediate. The girls were allowed up on deck. Some clothing was found for those who were naked, not of the prettiest perhaps, but adequate to protect their modesty. Ford was brought: some bread and cheese, and a basket of apples, plain fare but to the ravenous girls welcome indeed. A pail of water was likewise gratefully received. And a sheet was put up in the stern to screen the girls while they washed from the buckets of sea water provided. One of the sailors ascended the rigging in order to spy, but was detected by the girls, who set up a cry. The man was hauled down, tied to the mast and whipped on his bare back. Caroline peeped round the side of the sheet to observe this spectacle, but recoiled from the brutality. It was a reminder, if one were needed, of the potential violence that lurked around them.

As the girls sat drying themselves, Caroline spoke. "I have managed to get these concessions from the captain. Don't enquire how, but I am sure none of you will be in doubt as to the nature of what I had to trade. The captain has informed me that if his men do not receive similar services from the rest of you, he will be unable to control them. What I propose is this. I will try to negotiate with the captain that only such girls as are willing to volunteer will be used in this manner, and that they will not be expected to service more than four men in any one session, and that no violence will be offered to them. If I go to propose this, I need to know that there are sufficient among you who are willing to volunteer in order to keep the rest of you safe. Who is willing to make this sacrifice?"

For a moment there was silence. Then one girl, Sally, pretty and dark-haired, spoke. "They won't hurt us? And we need only service one at a time, not a whole bunch at once?"

"I will propose this," Caroline said.

"Then I'll volunteer. But only if others will too. I'm not taking on the whole crew by myself."

One or two of the girls tittered at this, but four more raised their hands. The girl who had earlier been violated sat at the back, staring at the deck. She seemed to be still in shock.

"Good," said Caroline. "Let's hope I can make it work."

She went round the sheet, out onto the deck and sought out the captain, who was standing in the stern. She explained what she had agreed with the other girls. The captain listened intently, then replied.

"Very well. We will try this and see how it works. I hope it's not only the plain ones who are volunteering." He smiled. "However, I have one condition of my own."

"Yes?" said Caroline nervously.

"That you dine with me this evening."

This was rather more than she expected. She hadn't planned to make an intimate friend of this man, only service his physical needs in exchange for concessions. But she realised that she needed at least an appearance of cordiality.

"If you wish," she said, inclining her head politely.

"I'll see if I can find you something more appropriate to wear," he said, looking at her nightgown. Caroline blushed; she was only too aware that the flimsy material hid little of her charms.

Back below deck with the rest of the girls, Caroline had nothing to do but wait for her evening's engagement. As one does in such situations, she fell to ruminating on the recent past. Had Sir George survived his blow to the head? How would she feel if she was now a widow? Not that it made any practical difference, given her situation. But try as she might she could not feel much grief. Her marriage had been strictly a matter of convenience. She had had a wretched childhood; her mother, as she had never tired of telling the young Caroline, had wished for a boy. She appeared to resent Caroline and set out to make her life a misery by constant criticism and harsh punishments. Her mother had taken to drink, and when under the influence beat her child savagely. Caroline looked to her father for protection, but he was a weak man, unable to stand up against his domineering wife.

When, at the tender age of eighteen, Caroline had attracted the attention of the local squire, she immediately saw this as a way out of her unhappy home. Sir George was a widower, middle-aged, portly, interested, it appeared, only in hunting and drinking. But to Caroline, desperate for something better, he was a saviour. She readily agreed to his proposal and in no time became Lady Caroline.

It would be an exaggeration to say that she had jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, but married life proved a sad disappointment. She found Sir George physically unattractive. On her wedding night she had done her duty. Sir George had rolled on top of her, thrust away for a few minutes, and rolled off again. It didn't hurt (she had feared it might) but it left her indifferent. Afterwards she lay awake wondering if this was all there was to it, that thing that everyone made such a fuss about. Since then Sir George had been sparing in his demands, not requiring her services above once a month. For this, Caroline was grateful, but it did not make for satisfaction.

And then she met Henry. He was a distant relative of Sir George, who had come to stay for a week. In no time at all he had seduced Caroline, with, it should be said, no little encouragement on her part. All at once she discovered the joys of sex. Sir George suspected nothing (and might not have cared even if he had). She and Henry would go for walks in the woods, where he would strip her naked and make minute inspections of her body, demonstrating to her the particular pleasures that could be derived from the right caresses applied to each part. Caroline had always been a surreptitious masturbator, but she soon realised that orgasms were all the more pleasurable when induced by a skilled and handsome lover.

Henry demonstrated to her the delights of the various positions for intercourse, introduced her to cunnilingus, instructed her in exactly how to suck his cock, and even surprised her one afternoon with a little light spanking. Secretly she rather hoped that he would try this again, perhaps a little harder, but it had not happened on that visit.