Chapter 3

June 21, 17--

The next morning I was roused from the cabin in which I was confined, fed an ill-tasting concoction, and dragged upstairs, this time however being allowed to dress before my punishment. I did not know whether to take that as a promising, or an ominous, Portent.

A drummer kept a slow beat while I was led to the mast and my hands tied above me. Captain Miranda was silent while sentence was read by Kate, the First Mate: "Twenty lashes." A short, gap-toothed hag with breasts dangling almost to her knees stood before me, eagerly fingering the cat'o'nine-tails; by the looks of her squat form her strength with it was equal to that of any bosun in the Navy.

A blindfold was tied around my eyes, and then I felt hands take my clothes and pull them down over my waist and down to my feet. Now I stood, blindfolded and naked, before the entire crew. "Ready?" I heard Kate call, and there was shuffling behind me. I tensed myself for the pain to come. "Lash!" she cried.

I felt something touch me and prepared for the sting of the whip, but in a fraction of a second I realized it was something else entirely-- a tongue, which went up my back, all the way to my neck. I wriggled as it tickled me, and then it went away.

"Lash!" the cry came again. And another tongue touched my buttock, and then traveled up the crack of my bottom, ending at the base of my spine.

"Lash!" And a third tongue traveled up my stomach. I turned to allow it fuller access and it went up my stomach and then to my breast, stopping to suck at my nipple before it was suddenly ripped away.

I stepped away from the mast and moved my legs apart to signal my acceptance. "Lash!" and the next tongue licked up my thigh and then kissed the petals of my sex, which opened to greet the strange lips.

Tongue after tongue tasted of me and still I could touch no one, only wriggle in delight at the pleasure being given me. One tongue licked at my backside and I spread wide to encourage it to explore deeper; one tongue licked at my sopping puss, but was taken away too soon; others suckled at my teats, licked my belly, nuzzled my neck and breathed hotly into my ear. But soon enough the twenty lashings were past and I was left standing there, unsatisfied and unable to pleasure myself. This then was my true torment-- to have felt the sting of pleasure, without its completion.

Dearest Diarie, I know that you must be astonished, when I tell you these things, at the change which had been effected in my attitudes by a week aboard this pirate Vessel. First that a young lady of my natural modesty should think nothing of walking around a ship half-undressed, her breasts exposed to all and sundry. This, of course, was made tolerable by the fact that it was a ship on which no Man was to be found, and thus little different than undressing before one's lady's maids or sisters.

Second was that I was so accepting of this business of being paraded around entirely naked, and tied to the mast to be whipped. Here I can only say that when one is faced with ruthless Power, as I was here, one must stiffen one's resolve and choose not to be overcome by the natural tendency of the fairer sex, at least the well-bred type, to collapse in helplessness at such indignities. I felt it was my duty, to England and to the Winterblossoms, to bear up bravely.

Third-- well, dear Diarie, I daresay you may have been shocked at some of the Sapphic activities which I have confessed to indulging in, in these pages. But in fact, whilst jailed in the altogether, I had had a great deal of time to think about my life and education and how I had come to this place.

Though some would look at my fair alabaster skin (now browning, alas, in this Tropical sun), and my great beauty, and consider me blessed, yet it must be reckoned that I have known great hardship as well. Father's profligacy at the Whist table, and his early Death from consumption (by which I do not mean the Disease of that name, but that he was consumed by a ravenous Hippopotamus at an exhibition of the Royal Zoological Society, after drinking too much ale and tumbling into its pit), thrust my Mother into a position which I despised bitterly, that of serving as mistress to Lord B.

As a young girl, I was often harsh and insulting to that kind and gentle man, and I see now that he loved Mother dearly, and greatly admired the way she served as his hostess and consort throughout the social season, though he could not wed her. To me, however, the shame of Mother's taking his bed, and everyone knowing it, to support us was all that mattered. I confess I thought her no better than a Wh-r-.

I was enlightened a bit when, upon the Lord's death, Mother married the mill-owner Skizzleby, a low and mulish man, but one whose wealth outweighed his complete lack of other charms. Now Mother had respectability-- but not love, nor was there any love for me. In short order I was shipped off to the Indies, in the company of Aunt Agatha and Rev'd Pinchwork, God rest their souls.

So where was I? Ah yes, Dear Diarie, standing naked with my arms tied above me on the main deck, blindfolded, and sorely missing the nameless tongues which had, moments before, been licking their way toward my breasts, cunny, and bottom, I knew that my one advantage stood in not merely meekly acquiescing in the demands placed upon my person by Captain Miranda, like any milkmaid being pawed by the lord of the manor and desperate not to be discharged. I must take control of the situation for myself, much as Miranda herself had done when she had seized this ship seven years earlier-- or as my own Mother had done in very different, --yet not so different at that, circumstances in London many years ago.

I twisted my arms around under the ropes until I was facing outward, and then carefully walked myself around the mast halfway until I was, I believed, standing before Captain Miranda. Then I set my legs akimbo, and shouted loudly:

"Here I stand, revealed and with a most wet and inflamed sex. Is there no one on this ship who will give me the relief I need by licking it for me?"

I could hear the shock and titters from the crew. There would probably have been no shortage of volunteers momentarily, had not Miranda called out "Let her down." My blindfold was removed and then my hands untied from the mast. Miranda sat, perhaps ten yards away. Again, surprise was my best asset. I began to run, naked as a newborn bairn, straight toward her, and leaped over the rail to land myself in her lap, a place where I seemed but a tiny boat deep in the folds and swells of a vast sea.

Grabbing her head by each side, I put my lips directly on hers, and began to kiss her most vigorously, thrusting my tongue into her mouth and rubbing my opened sex against her thigh. Then suddenly she shrieked and batted me off of her with one of her fists, knocking me to the deck. She clutched her lip, from which blood poured freely where I had bitten it.