The blood stopped in my veins. Yes, they were merely swaggering Spanish plunderers, but to kill the wretches outright, after they had been defeated… Heart leaden, I spun around.
The Captain smiled fixedly at me, her eyes gleaming with wild lust. “Let us go below, Rebecca,” she whispered.
***
From then on my life grew ever more difficult. I took no joy in our plundering, and whenever we captured some unlucky Spanish vessel, I tried to keep myself from the action as much as possible. I could not stand the thought that in swarming aboard some ship with my hard-eyed mates around me, I might be compelled to kill again. Already I was tortured by the thought of the Spaniard whom I myself had killed. I could not undo what I had done in that first battle, but I vowed that I would not let it happ
