A moment's curiosity, a moment's compassion, can change your life.
It can also change the lives of others... for better or for worse.
The history of the seventeenth century is rife with pirates; some real, some mere figures of fiction larger than life. The woman known -- even to her intimates -- only as 'Dutch' (although Dutch she and her men most certainly were not...) is one such freebooter, her origins forgotten, her authority over an unruly crew achieved by hard-won right. Her ship was a part of the flotilla that for three long days had blockaded the small colony of Cape Town, disturbed only by a small British squadron aiming to keep peace on the high seas. But the pirates' force proves overwhelming, and as our story begins they launch their long-postponed attack.
If anyone had tried to tell Dutch at that moment that anyone, however insignificant, could feel either curiosity or compassion where her hand-to-mouth existence was concerned, she would have laughed in his face. But the fact remains that, if it had not been for the fascination and pity of a timid little clerk, her life from then on might have been very different.
The East Indies hold out the promise of riches in silk and spice, of cinnamon and cedarwood and amber... and the gold that is brought to trade for them. But there are other treasures to be found -- and lost -- in a voyage halfway across the world...
This story is a compiled round robin by DutchS and Igenlode Wordsmith. Changes of authorship (and hence, frequently, cliff-hangers!) are indicated by a horizontal rule. My co-author has English as a second language -- I don't enjoy that excuse! Moreover, the would-be-clever nautical and historical errors (as opposed to mere ignorance, of course...) are all mine ;-)