The women in the boat with him, he noticed, had no such worries. They laughed and joked amongst themselves, even as the muscles in their corded arms pulled at the oars.
As they slowly made the way back to the privateer, William observed his new companions. They seemed to come from every corner of the American continent. His ear was treated to a plethora of accents, from the brogues and burrs of the Irish and the Scottish (obviously recent immigrants), to the flat, harsh sound of New England, to the soft, liquid drawl of the deep South.
His eye was caught by one spectacular example, a woman with skin the deep reddish-brown on mahogany. Her eyes were dark and liquid, and her hair cut close to her scalp. She sat side by side on her rowing bench with a woman with hair of the palest gold, lim
