the evening, as was her habit, because she was still miffed with Jass,
and the world, and she wanted him to cQme to her. She looked out of the
window and saw her father walking to the big house with Jass. She prayed
that Cap'n Jack was telling him about her desire to go to the wedding,
about which she had poured out her distressed heart to her father for a
solid hour, and that Jass, being the young Massa, would do something
about it.
Just in case God wasn't in a listening mood, she crossed her fingers and
allowed herself to dream.
28
Jass loved his father's study. All the other rooms at The Forks
reflected Sally's personality, and although she had been re
sponsible for decorating this room, his father's untidiness pre
vailed. The floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed with books, the
clutter of heavy furniture, and the imposing oak desk sug
gested a world where women seldom came-and they seldom
228 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
did, except as occasional visitors, or as maids, to clean.
James busied himself with the copious papers on the desk, for he was not
looking forward to this interview with his son. Cap'n Jack waited near
the door,
James looked at Jass, and his spirit failed him slightly. The boy simply
looked too young to be a serious participant in the conversation James
had in mind, so he delayed matters by turning his attention to Cap'n
Jack.
"Our old friend Alfred is getting married at last," he announced, stating
what was for everyone, by now, the obvious.
Cap'n Jack was courteous. "Yes, suh, I hear, suh."
James found the letter he pretended to have been looking for, which had
never been lost.
" You'll be coming to Nashville, of course, to valet master Jass and
myself. But there's more-"
He held out the letter. Cap'n Jack looked reluctant. Jass smiled to
himself, for what was being played out was a continuing charade.
" I cain't read, suh," Cap'n Jack lied reasonably. "Tain't legal."
James was not in a mood to waste time. "For heaven's sake, you can read
as well as I-- he began, but knew he was wasting his breath. Whatever the
truth of the matter, Cap'n Jack would never admit his education, even in
the confines of this room, where he had no enemies.
"Oh, very well," James gave in, and glanced at the letter. "The president
says that Alfred has requested you as his best man. Of course, you have
my pen-nission."
Cap'n Jack smiled happily. "Why, that's wonderful news, suh. Will you
write that I accept?"
" I already have," James said. "I thought you would like to know. Thank
you, Cap'n Jack."
Jass guessed that his father was simply procrastinating, that he had
something more serious he wanted to discuss, with Jass, but was playing
for time with Cap'n Jack. Please don't let it be about girls, Jass sent
up an urgent prayer to heaven. They'd had a brief aimless discussion of
morality some months ago, which ended with his father's admonition, "You
know about girls, I'm sure. Don't ever be discourteous, or unmannerly,
or, damn it, base, toward them," and had left
MERGING 229
whatever other information his son might need to Cap'n Jack, the men of
the slave quarters, and the other boys at school. Jass had been even more
embarrassed than James by his father's inconsequential ramblings and he
now hoped Cap'n Jack wouldn't leave.
That part of his prayer was answered, for Cap'n Jack didn't go. He
hovered by the door, until James, who had returned his attention to the
papers on his desk, looked up. "What is it?" he asked.
"My daughter, suh, Easter. Annie's girl. She want so much to go to the
wedding. Would mean a lot to her."
"Well, of course she can go," James interrupted, completely aware of the
not so subtle emotional blackmail that was being used. Any mention of
Annie stiffed his conscience, reminding him of things he would rather
forget. Still, some role had to be found for Easter.
"She can maid Sassy. Angel can teach her." Angel was Sally's maid.
"Yes, suh, thank you very much, sub. I tell her tomorrow, and she learn
good." Cap'n Jack was duly grateful, but a slight twinkle of triumphant
conspiracy passed between him and Jass. "Good night, Massa."
Jass could hardly conceal the grin of delight that sneaked to his face.
Cap'n Jack gave the merest wink to Jass before bowing to his master and
leaving, and somehow Jass understood that the secret was to be kept from
Easter for a little while at least, and that he would be the one to tell
her.
"Well," said James, when they were alone. "Would you care for some port?"
Jass found himself caught in an agony of ambivalence, not for the first
time that day. His father had never offered him port before, and part of
Jass was cock-a-hoop that he seemed to have crossed some line of
demarcation between boyhood and manhood with his father. Another part of
him groaned inwardly. Almost certainly, this meant they were going to
talk about girls.
"Perhaps a small one, sir." He accepted the invitation, and James nodded
at the decanter on his desk. Jass moved forward to pour himself a glass.
230 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
In the hall, Sally was fiddling, picking dead buds from flowers in a
vase, when Cap'n Jack came out of the study. She looked at him and he at
her. They were old conspirators, and he left the library door slightly
open, so that Sally could hear the conversation within.
Then he looked for something equally trivial to do, and began trimming
candles.
Jass sipped his port and thought it wonderful. He had seldom drunk any
alcohol, except at celebrations, and then only watered wine. He loved the
taste of this sweet, thick liquid, loved the gentle fire that traced
through his body as the wine did its work, and loved the small sense of
equality it gave him with his sometimes distant father.
"Do you like it?" James asked.
"Very much, sir," Jass responded, nodding his head and taking another,
confirming, sip of port.
There was a tiny silence, and then James took the plunge.
"It's never been easy for me to discuss personal matters with you, Jass,"
he began, and, having begun, found it easier than he had expected. "There
are things I thought I would not have to discuss with you, but because
of your brother's untimely death-"
He stopped, momentarily. A.J.'s accident had caused him terrible grief.
Like Sally, he simply didn't discuss it with anyone, and tried not to
think about it. It had become easier, of course. Time had healed the
worst of the pain, although the aching hurt still washed across him in
unguarded moments, causing, if only for an instant, an overwhelming sense
of loss and of the unfairness of it. He looked at Jass, and could not,
in all honesty, see in his eager sec
ond son an adequate substitute for
his first.
"With A.J. gone," he continued, "you will now inherit all this." The
vague "all this" implied a considerable fortune. "We have never talked
about it, and it's time we did."
11 Yes, sir," Jass responded dutifully.
"It is not easy, Jass," James said, wondering if he should call him
James, "to be master of such responsibilities as I will leave to you. I
hope, of course, that I will be with you for many years, and the
assumption of your eventual role will be gradual. I will ease you into
it, and you will always be able to come to me for advice and
consideration."
MERGING 231
1 sound so pompous, thought James. Like my own father. What must the boy
think of me? Why can't I come to the heart of the matter?
"It is not easy being master," he said again, unnecessarily, and stopped
again. We're getting nowhere, he thought.
" But," he said, and knew it had to be now, "I won't always be here. And
if anything should happen to me, I want you to be ready. Do you like the
Perkins girl?"
It came as a small bolt from the blue, and Jass was thrown by it,
although the connection was obvious to his father.
" Well, yes, I guess. Lizzie's charming" was the best Jass could manage.
"She is also a most eligible heiress." His father, having taken the
plunge, waded on. "'You're too young to even contemplate
anything-serious-with her, and if circumstances were different we would
not be having this conversation. But--
Jass knew where they were going. In that "but" a whole future lay.
It was apparent to Sally too, still fiddling with dead flowers in the
hall, and to Cap'n Jack, still uselessly trimming a wick that could
scarcely be trimmed any more.
11
-you will have to marry eventually, and I hope it will be sooner rather
than later. I was not a young man when I married your mother, and I
sometimes regret that I did not find her earlier."
He had completely lost track of how to say what he wanted, he knew,
although his goal still beckoned him, if only he could reach it. Why is
it so.difficult? he thought again, although he already knew the answer.
He was trying to control something that, ultimately, he did not believe
was his to control. He lost his temper with himself.
"You must have sons, Jass!" he announced angrily. "Sons to inherit what
I have created here."
As soon as he said it, his anger at himself increased, for he knew he
sounded even more pompous than before. Jass was puzzled by his father's
vehemence, but a second glass of port was making him bold.
"Of course, Papa," he said. "I'm looking forward to being married one
day. But I was wondering about-" He found
232 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
the word difficult to say, for he was suddenly feeling a complex anger,
too. Here he was with his father, drinking port and discussing his future
as man and master, yet he was still being treated as an inadequate boy.
He felt an intense, burning need to communicate to his father that he
wasn't a boy anymore, he was a man, in charge of his own destiny. Suddenly
he wanted answers from his father to some of the questions that had been
puzzling him.
"I was wondering," he repeated, "about love."
James stared at his son, as if staggered by his impudence. Love, he
thought, oh, love. That is the heart of it. That is what I should be
discussing with him, and what I am trying to deny him. I am considering
everything that matters--this house, this land, this estate, this family,
this fortune-but not the thing that matters most. I have not considered
his heart. Is that what my father did to me?
To his son he said: "Love?"
Jass began a confused apology. "Where that comes into it. I mean, I know
all about girls and things, and getting married, and babies, all the
fellows at school talk about that all the time, but no one's ever talked
to me about love."
It was eminently fair and reasonable, thought James, and completely
unanswerable. He struggled to describe the indescribable. "Love is-"
What? A young man's dream? An intangible, foolish, impractical something,
dictated by the heart, not the head, which if undirected could sabotage
everything he had worked for, all he had built, the tiny empire he had
created. Yet it was a most basic right of any man-and, he knew, totally
unpredictable, perhaps dangerously so. He had never questioned, would
never have challenged, A.J.'s right to love whom he would, for A.J. would
have loved the right woman, James was sure. A.J.'s sense of
responsibility would have dictated to his heart, and he would have chosen
a bride who would have been worthy mistress of this mansion. Why was he
not so sure that Jass would do the same?
"I hope you will find love," he assured his son, longing for Sally to
help. "But marriage and love do not necessarily go hand in hand."
They do, his heart insisted, they do. Let the boy love. But let him love
wisely, his mind responded.
MERGING 233
"When I first met your mother, I thought she was the most beautiful
creature I had ever seen, and I-wanted her-at that moment-"
The unguarded thought had slipped out. So anxious was he to impress duty
on his son that he was not embarrassed by the admission of lust.
--but I didn't love her then, I didn't know her, I'd never spoken to her.
Love came with knowledge. The more I came to know her, the more I came
to love her, until now I cannot bear to be apart from her. "
Sally's heart sang a sweet duet. This is my husband, whom I love. And
this is my son, who has dared my husband to speak of love.
"But we married for different reasons," she hardly heard James continue.
"We married for mutual benefit; we married to have a family. Love came
later."
Whatever motives she had for wanting to overhear the conversation in the
study now seemed irrelevant to Sally, for she knew her son would love
whom he would, marry whom he must. She hoped they would be one and the
same woman, but if not, she hardly cared, for the boy would be his own
man, and that, for Sally, was all that mattered. Only one tiny cloud
troubled her otherwise flawless horizon. She moved to the study and
softly she closed the door.
"Easter's turned into a fine girl," she said to Cap'n Jack.
"Yes, missus," the slave replied.
"Master James is very fond of her."
"Yes, missus."
Sally moved away, as if that were the end of the conversation, but, at
the stairs, turned back.
"Let us hope he doesn't become-too fond-of her." Her meaning was
precisely clear, and Cap'n Jack looked at her steadily.
"No, missus."
Why did she fear this so? Why, in this moment of otherwise complete
certainty about Jass's character, did she have such profound misgivi
ngs
about a simple slave girl?
Sally moved in what she often thought was a hypocritical hemisphere with
regard to her son's libido. She knew, as did all Southern mothers, that
most of their young men found their
234 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
first sexual pleasures with slave girls, and that many of these young men
continued to take that pleasure throughout their adult life. She knew-they
all did-of older male friends who kept a black mistress, or several
concubines, or of those who simply raped their slave women as and when the
urge took them. It was seldom discussed by the women, and then only
"behind the fan," but oh, how busy those fans could be, feeding the embers
of gossip into lurid flames of speculation.
In the more sensational cases, such as that of Mr. Herrisvale, only three
counties away, who had taken his black concubine into the main house,
into the very nuptial bed, relegating his true and lovely white wife to
the second-best guest room, the fans had worked overtime, for every white
woman could only too easily imagine herself in a similar predicament. The
dear, sweet Mrs. Herrisvale had absolutely no recourse of any kind. As
wife she was chattel, to be done with as her husband wished-in many ways,
Sally frequently thought, no better than a slave-and no matter how much
her family might rail on her behalf, the husband was lord of the estate
and king of the lives of those who dwelt therein, and if he was of a can-
tankerous nature, like Mr. Herrisvale, all the suffering Edna could do
was bear the indignity with as much fortitude as she could muster. Her
outraged brothers had demanded her return to them, with or without her
substantial dowry, but Mr. Herrisvale had kept them at bay with shotguns
and the full force of the law. "We can only be grateful," swooned the
fanning gossips, "that our dear husbands are reasonable, faithful,
Christian men."
But were they? What woman could be sure that her husband was not finding
some pleasure, at least, in the slave quarters, and if he was, what might
this lead to? Surely Edna Herrisvale had put her complete faith and trust
in her husband, and look at her now. Yet for many of the wives, the slave
concubines were a considerable relief, for it meant fewer sexual demands
on them. And a mightier relief too, on behalf of their daughters. for if
the young beaux had no other outlet for their base desires, the virginity
of every young Southern belle was potentially at risk, and for a girl to
go to the altar already deflowered was a shame no mother could bear.
Still Sally worried about Jass's fondness for Easter. She
MERGING 235
guessed that any eventual physical relationship with Easter would keep him
satisfied and happy, for the realist in her knew that her son must be
developing carnal needs, and she prayed that he would eventually find a
bride who would not be too obtuse in the bedroom. Yet that other,
maternal, side of her dreamed that her boy might be temperate of desire,
that he would remain a virgin until his marriage, and that he would be as
sweet and undemanding of his spouse in bed as he was in life. That this
hope somehow emasculated her son was a demon fear she worked very hard to
keep at bay.
She wanted for Jass a simple life, she told herself, and Easter was an
unnecessary complication.
"Good night, Cap'n Jack," she said, and went up the stairs. If anyone had
influence over Easter and lass it was Cap'n Jack, and she was relying on
him to do his utmost to put restraints on their friendship.
"Good night, Missus Sally," Cap'n Jack replied, and started turning down
lamps.
What Sally did not understand, for she had no knowledge of it, was the
bitter complexity of Cap'n Jack's ambition. Unable to persuade Annie's
new owner to part with his new slave, even for considerable sums of
money, Sally had spent countless hours comforting Cap'n Jack, and
believed that his pain had eventually healed.
She was wrong.
All the furious vows of vengeance Cap'n Jack had made the day Annie was