Page 14 of Queen

absent. Elizabeth gurgled and chuckled and reached up to grab James's

  whiskers, and was perfectly happy in his arms. Later, when Sarah changed

  Elizabeth's linen, James watched the simple domesticity, and yearned for

  it in his life.

  Toward sunset, when the mosquitoes came out, they realized they had

  talked too long, and made a hasty departure. It was five miles to the

  Polk residence, and Sarah should be home before dark. Cap'n Jack went

  back to the house, and James drove the gig, his horse hitched to it,

  pointing out the parameters of his land to Sarah, as if assuring her of

  his financial eligibility. They arranged to attend church together the

  following Sunday, and to picnic again, at the same spot.

  They saw each other every Sunday of the summer after that, and when her

  period of mourning was over, James began call-

  BLOODLINES 109

  ing on her at her home. His suit received the full approval of the Polks,

  who wrote to Sarah's father, informing him of their hopes for a union

  between his daughter and this splendid bachelor.

  Mr. Moore came to visit his daughter, and his heart was touched by what

  he found. The dull grief that had enshrouded Sarah was cast aside with

  the black dress and veil. Now his daughter was herself again, as she had

  been in the happier days of her life. She still thought fondly of her

  late husband, but looked forward eagerly to her next.

  All of James's many friends indicated their approval of the union, and

  voiced their confidence in James. Mr. Moore questioned James most

  carefully, and if he found a certain lack of flamboyance in his

  prospective son-in-law, that only added luster to him, for Mr. Moore was

  concerned that Sarah should make a solid and reliable marriage rather

  than a spectacular one. There was enough flamboyance, enough cavalier

  behavior, in the other men of the frontier, with Andrew Jackson as the

  most grandiose of all, and while Mr. Moore was delighted by Andrew's

  company, he was pleased that Sarah had chosen a quieter man.

  Before Mr. Moore left Nashville, he had given his blessing to James, who

  then formally proposed to Sarah, and she, as gravely, accepted. They had

  a party at the new Nashville Inn, and danced until dawn, and were happy.

  Perhaps because Samuel had been the first love of Sarah's life, she had

  spent her youthful romance in that love, and what she felt for James was

  deeper, more secure, and less intense. Sarah was the first true

  reciprocated love of James's life, but he found her when he was older,

  and had lost the foolishness of youth. They approached each other and

  their marriage as adults, delighting in each other, but with a deep

  concern to lay the foundations for a lifelong partnership. Their great

  gift was laughter. James's Irish sense of humor touched some Celtic chord

  in Sarah, and others regarded them enviously, for their heads were always

  together, and their eyes were always smiling. They didn't seem to need

  anybody but each other, although they never excluded anyone else from

  their company.

  Because of the confusion between Sarah, his fianc6e, and Sara, his

  sister, the family began calling their new relation

  110 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  Sally, and it pleased her, because it made her feel young.

  Sally, who had been Sarah, returned to South Carolina to visit her many

  relations, to put her affairs in order, and to show Elizabeth to her

  aunts and uncles and grandparents. She went to Baltimore and Philadelphia

  to buy her trousseau, and she met James's relatives there, who welcomed

  her into the family. She returned to Nashville the following spring, and

  in October, James Jackson married Sally Moore McCullough in a simple

  ceremony attended by two hundred friends and relations.

  Andrew Jackson was James's best man.

  Friends loaned them a small house not far from town so that they might be

  alone, apart from several slaves, for the first few days of their

  marriage. They drove there late on their wedding night, Cap'n Jack and

  other slaves riding beside them with lanterns. At the house, Angel had

  made ready for her Missy and new Massa. A supper was laid on the table,

  and candles lighted the scene. James carried Sally over the threshold, and

  once the couple were comfortable the slaves drifted away to the kitchen,

  and made their own party.

  Sally went to the bedroom first, and made herself ready. James undressed

  in another room, and came to her after a decent interval. He was oddly

  nervous. He had no doubt of his ability in the marriage bed, but he did

  not want to disappoint his bride, who had been married before. She had

  talked to him of Samuel, and he understood her passion for him, but he

  was anxious to prove himself the better man.

  Sally was standing by the window staring out at the room. She looked

  ravishing in oyster silk, with her hair loose. James came to her, put his

  hands gently on her shoulders, kissed her elegant neck, and swore that

  he would do everything in his power to make her happy. She turned and her

  eyes told him that she believed him, and she swore a similar vow.

  He bent to her and they kissed, and her mouth seemed to melt around his

  tongue. He picked her up and carried her to the bed, laid her down and

  lay beside her, stroking her, running his hands through her hair, and did

  not want his mouth ever to be separated from hers. He freed her breasts,

  and could not resist a whispered joke, that these were the reason that

  he had fallen in love with her. To his relief, Sally laughed, and

  BLOODLINES 111

  told him that was why she had shown herself so boldly. The laughter was

  the key that unlocked James's passion. He buried his face in her breasts

  and explored her body with his hands and his tongue. With gentle hints and

  subtle persuasion, all modified by smiles and giggles, Sally guided him

  to those places that pleased her, and was expert enough in the ways of men

  to know what he needed.

  When James entered her, she locked him to her as if she would never let

  him go, and called out his power and her surrender. James was filled with

  a sense of his own masculinity, and her soft and yielding capitulation

  to him made him feel, at his climax, the most sublime pleasure of his

  life.

  They slept very little that night, because he could not get his fill of

  her. He no longer cared if he was a better lover than Samuel; he felt no

  sense of competition with the dead, because he, James, was living, and

  her master, and she had no alternative but him, now. When she whispered

  her need for his baby, he shared the longing, and told her that the seed

  he gave her was the seed of life.

  The fact that he did not have to compete with anyone, anymore, for

  anything, freed him from restraint, freed him from inhibition, and while

  his conscious mind believed that she was giving herself, his soul knew

  better. He was engulfed by her.

&n
bsp; They spent their honeymoon in idyllic circumstances. The house was a

  charming, well-appointed log cabin, set among tall trees. The crisp,

  chill weather and the riotous colors of autumn filled their senses in the

  day, and the warmth and companionship of the marriage bed, and their lack

  of coy reserve, made the nights endlessly delightful. There were very few

  problems between them, and any that arose were solved with laughter,

  which remained the constant fixture of their marriage. Still they each

  kept a part of themselves closed from the other, believing that they had

  a lifetime to discover those things, and did not want to become overly

  familiar too soon.

  After two weeks they returned to Nashville, and began the business of

  building their family.

  A year later, Sally gave birth to a daughter, who was named Mary, as the

  biblical Mary had been the ftiend of Elizabeth. James was cock-a-hoop on

  the day Mary came into the world, and bought endless rounds of drinks for

  his friends at the inn,

  112 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  who ribbed him gently. Making a baby wasn't so difficult, they told him.

  Most men could do it. Even niggers could do that.

  When he came in to see Mary for the first time, his heart filled with

  love for her. He could not believe that he had made this tiny, perfect

  thing. He held her in his arms, and sat in a chair by the window, and

  told her stories of how she was blessed by the fairies and leprechauns.

  Mary seemed to believe him, and snuggled contentedly into her father's

  arms.

  James looked at Sally, and smiled, and thanked her.

  "Are you disappointed she isn't a boy?" Sally asked him, for she had been

  worried. Like all the women of the frontier, she knew sons were critical

  to the family's survival, and James was obsessed by family.

  James laughed and said no, but examined his conscience. In truth, he had

  felt a mild twinge of disappointment, but had shrugged it aside. When he

  held Mary in his arms, not even the memory of that disappointment

  remained, but Sally's question had revived it.

  "No," he said again, wanting to convince her that he wasn't lying. "She

  is beautiful."

  Then he gave Sally his most impish smile.

  "And anyway, she's just the first," he grinned. "We can always keep

  trying."

  They tried very hard, but were not successful in their efforts at first.

  Martha was born the following year, and Mary Ellen two years after that.

  Everyone was kind, friends and relations, but they all longed for a boy,

  and James began to understand Andrew's obsessive need for sons. He

  consoled himself with the thought that at least he and Sally could

  produce children, while Andrew and Rachel could not.

  This time James's prayers were answered. Sally delivered a son, a

  strapping, chubby boy, who was as healthy as anyone could wish.

  The arrival of his son had an extraordinary effect on James. He held the

  boy, and stared at him, and, against the strong advice of Eleanor and

  Sara, took him outside into the warm night. He sat with his son for an

  hour and dreamed of the future.

  BLOODLINES 113

  He had ensured the succession of his family. His son would have

  everything that he did not. He would grow up surrounded by love, as James

  had not, and flourish and be a fine man, and inherit his father's estate,

  as James had not.

  They would be friends, James swore to it, and while he would give his son

  the discipline a man needed to survive in the world, and to prosper, he

  would always know that he occupied first place in his father's heart. He

  would be honest and reliable and adventurous. He would be well provided

  for, he would want for nothing, but he would be given an appreciation of

  the value of money and the glory of labor. He would own slaves, but would

  be taught respect for the dignity of man. He would be given a sense of

  independence, and the will to expand and develop what James had created.

  He could be anything he wanted to be, a farmer or a general, or both,

  like Andrew, but he would be a son any man could be proud of, and always,

  he would be loved.

  James felt the salt sting of tears in his eyes. He returned his son to

  his women, and went and got drunk with his friends at the inn.

  The son came to be known as A.J., to avoid confusion with his illustrious

  godfather, but that was not his name. As if to give him a sense of the

  majesty of which he was capable, of the heroism that was his patrimony,

  through his father's dearest friend, as if to remind the boy always of

  the man James wanted him to emulate, he was christened Andrew Jackson

  Jackson.

  Because always, there was Andrew.

  14

  Amdrew Jackson, orphaned himself as a youth, gathered young men unto

  him, just as he gathered sons who were not his own. He awoke the

  limitless horizons of the boy in all of them. He put his great,

  embracing arms around them and swept them off to realms of

  extraordinary adventure.

  114 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  An extravagant Pied Piper, his embrace was extensive and undiscriminating.

  Those who were prepared to follow his path were given spectacular rewards

  of excitement; the others simply fell by the wayside, unmourned and

  unnoticed by Andrew. Those who were in his way, he tried to eliminate,

  honorably, through duel or the courts, or by the stinging whiplash of his

  eloquent invective. He demanded discipline, obedience, and loyalty from his

  apostles, but encouraged them to explore the outer limits of their own

  individuality.

  "He rides a streak of lightning."

  James could never remember which of Andrew's entourage said that, but, oh,

  it was true.

  So Andrew Jackson, the restless, roving visionary, had gathered James the

  merchant to him, and had shown him the places of legends, of chivalry and

  honor and breathless daring. To the misty shores of Avalon, where dedicated

  knights created the noble vision of Camelot, and quested the Holy Grail,

  and to the plains of Olympus, where fearless warriors challenged the gods.

  And standing in unquestioning support of the man who would be king was the

  flawless Rachel, the loving woman and wife, who represented all that was

  good on earth.

  What James could not know was that he did not stand as high in his mentor's

  firmament as Andrew did in his.

  When John Coffee and Andrew purchased the prizewinning horse Pacolet, they

  decided to offer shares in the animal to their loyal friends, those who

  could afford it, as tokens of their esteem. The first five shares were

  easily allotted, but they debated the sixth.

  :'Why not James?" John Coffee said. "He can afford it."

  'Which James?" Andrew asked. His mind was elsewhere, and he knew several

  men called James.

  :'James Jackson," John Coffee laughed. "The merchant."

  'Oh, yes," Andrew agreed. "Let's give the
bookkeeper a share. "

  Andrew's parents had migrated from Ireland, and made an arduous trek from

  Pennsylvania to North Carolina. They settled on an adequate piece of land,

  and began clearing their property. It was a hard life, and Andrew's father

  strained him-

  BLOODLINES 115

  self grubbing tree stumps, and died in agony. A few days later, his mother

  gave birth to her third son, and he was called Andrew in memory of his

  dead father.

  The widowed mother raised her son according to the creed of Sparta.

  "My door is always open to brave men, and perpetually closed to cowards."

  Young Andrew adored his mother and took her lessons to heart. Gifted with

  a fearless bravery, a passion for the use of language, and a reckless

  disregard for his own physical wellbeing, he had a hot temper and an

  unshakable conviction of his own destiny. He was bom to be a leader of

  men.

  His Irish blood gave him a hatred of the British, and at the onset of the

  American Revolution he offered his services to his uncle, who had formed

  a small band of militia. At the age of thirteen, he was made a messenger,

  given a horse and a pistol, and conducted himself with complete disregard

  for his own safety. After an unsuccessful foray against British dragoons,

  Andrew and some others took refuge in a house, but were found by the

  enemy. Andrew resisted his arrest and received a blow to his head from

  an officer's sword, a bloody gash that cut to the bone, and he carried

  the scar of it for the rest of his days.

  The death of his mother when he was fifteen devastated Andrew, but

  impelled him to live up to the remarkable standards of masculine behavior

  that she had set. At the end of the war he received a small inheritance

  from an uncle in Ireland, and he promptly squandered the money in a year

  of high living in Charleston, gambling, wenching, and cockfighting. He

  was broke and alone in the world, his only talents his quick mind, his

  gift of oratory, and an expert knowledge of horses. Relatives took him

  in and sent him to school, where he studied law. At the age of twenty he

  was made an attorney, attached to a traveling court. He found his way to

  Tennessee, and the reckless frontier living suited his temperament

  exactly. He settled in Nashville, practiced law, involved himself in

  politics, fought Indian marauders, and fell in love with Rachel Robards.

  He also made the first of several fortunes. He accepted land, valued at

  ten cents an acre, in payment of fees, and with the

  116 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

  rush of settlers to the district, within three years the price of that

  same land had risen to five dollars an acre.

  The frontier adored him, a rollicking, roistering, gambling, dueling,

  mischievous fellow, who argued successfully for Tennessee's admission to

  the Union, and became, by popular vote, the state's first member of the

  House of Representatives. In Philadelphia, which was then the capital,

  he criticized George Washington, was the bane of the financial

  committees, and became fast friends with Aaron Burr. At the end of his

  term he was elected to the Senate, but he was a man of action, not

  negotiation, and he quit the upper house to return to Nashville and his

  beloved Rachel. His grateful state appointed him to the Superior Court.

  He was a tough and respected judge, dedicated to rights of the individual

  against the state. He despised bureaucracy, he despised the banks who

  could hold an honest man in bondage, and he believed implicitly in the

  manifest destiny of the white man to inherit the land of America, for it

  was divinely ordained. His attitude toward the original inhabitants of

  the country was disparaging.

  "They are fickle, and will claim any and everything," he told James. "The

  treachery in their character justifies our never having faith in them.

  A few gifts, a few bribes, to the chiefs and to the interpreters, will

  gain anything that should be ours. "

  Yet he was ambivalent about them. He saw them as the sons of Cain, who