Dido's Prize - historical nominee

Hello everyone! Happy Valentine's Day!!! I hope your day is filled with a lot of love and all good things!

I loved writing Dido's Prize, nominated in the Historical Division (thanks so much, TRS!). The story is about a slave woman, Dido, who runs away to find freedom on a pirate ship. Set in the 1600s during the golden age of piracy she becomes a crewman on El Negro's ship which joins Henry Morgan's expeditions against the Spanish. Below is a short excerpt. Enjoy!

Dido hurried to the stern for a last look at the freed Africans who lined the beach, watching the departing ship. Seeing them raised her spirits. She raised both arms and waved. Slowly, tentatively, a woman waved back and then another until the whole line was shouting and waving and jumping. Dido smiled to see their joy. Oshun, guide and protect them, she whispered, let them find happiness in this place you have chosen for them.
The freed Africans and the two white figures among them dwindled in the distance and Dido turned back to the ship. In addition to the main sail and the jib, the top sails had also been unfurled. El Negro wanted to catch every possible breath of wind to speed them on their way to the rendezvous with Morgan.
Should she go to him and apologize? But for what? She had done nothing to apologize for but why then did she feel so miserable? Unable to sleep that night, she climbed up the ratlines to the crosstrees of the main mast and stared out over the inky sea. At first, she paid no attention to what she was seeing, but the beauty of the stars winking in the darkness and the implacable majesty of the ocean worked their magic on her. In time, the rhythm of the ship, the cool night air blowing against her face, and the wash of the waves, lulled her into a state of dreamy contentment.
“Boy! Domingo!”
She almost fell off her perch.
“What are you doing up there? Get down.” It was El Negro.
Dido rubbed her eyes. Why was he on deck now? Once he retired for the night, he rarely emerged until the next morning.
“Yes, sir.”
She scrambled down as fast as she could. Maybe she was still half-asleep or maybe it was his speed but she never saw his hand coming. The slap spun her head and she staggered to the side.
“No one takes the foretop except at my command,” he shouted at her. “What did you think you were doing? You could have been killed!”
Dido cupped her hand over her stinging cheek. She had never seen him so angry before. Was this the same man who had apologized to her for his harshness hours before? She glared at him, rigid with rage and hurt.
“Damn you for a half-wit!” He spun around and marched back into his cabin.
For a minute or two there was complete silence on deck. Dido looked around at the other men on the watch but they all avoided her gaze, embarrassed for her. Only Yacahüey looked her in the eyes.
“Why…? What…?” She could not even frame the question. El Negro’s behavior had completely stunned her.
“Men have fallen asleep on the foretop and crashed down to their deaths,” Yacahüey said. “That is why it is done only at the captain’s command on the Fortune’s Gift.”
“I was not asleep,” she objected.
“Sure looked it from where I am,” a sailor said from his hammock.
“I wasn’t…I’d just closed my eyes for a little bit but I was awake.”
Yacahüey shrugged. “As you say, but even so it is best that you close your eyes down here rather than up there.” He permitted himself one of his small, rare smiles.
Dido glared in the direction of the captain’s cabin. She had half a mind to follow him in there and slap him right back. See how he liked being on the receiving end. But she knew it was not the best idea she’d ever had. In fact, she was beginning to doubt the value of all her ideas. If she had not decided to run away and become a pirate she would be safely in her bed at Beeston’s all now. Of course, she would still be a slave. Yet what did it profit her to be free if some mystifying man was going to raise his hand to her for a little paltry thing?