Queen (23 page)

    hill that was the home of the old ones, as if they were looking at what

    they had lost.

    James shivered again, and turned and called for Sally. She came to him,

    and when he looked back, the Indians had gone. He could not swear that

    they had been there.

    "What is it, what's wrong?" Sally asked him. James laughed and threw

    aside his odd feeling of melancholy, or failure, or betrayal.

"Nothing," he said. "I'm a sentimental old fool, that's

all."

    BLOODLINES 133

    She laughed, and took his hand. James pulled her to him and kissed her,

    lightly at first, but then with passion.

Sally looked at him in surprise, for his need was urgent.

"I want you," he whispered, "Here. Now."

    He kissed her again, as violently as he had ever kissed her. He laid her

    on the ground, and took her there, in the open, like a peasant boy, as

    once, when young, he had taken a peasant girl under a hayrick in a

    flawless Irish summer that he had spent with Sean.

    At the moment of his climax, he pulled himself from her and spilled his

    seed upon the ground, as if to consummate his union with the land.

The following day, both James and Sally caught chills and laughed together

that it was because of their open-air frolicking in the winter weather.

Sally's cold took a natural course and was gone in a few days, but James

got steadily worse. By the time they were back in Nashville, he had

congestive fever. He took to his bed, but the sickness did not diminish

his passion for his new project. He engaged an architect to draw plans for

a magnificent mansion, but the effort exhausted him. He fretted that he

was losing time.

    Sally took command. She asked their good friends John McKinley and Henry

    Clay, Jr., to scour the South, to locate and hire, or buy, the best

    available slave artisans and craftsmen, masons, carpenters, ironworkers,

    and plasterers to build The Forks of Cypress.

    James, from his sickbed, anxious to move to his new home, gave orders

    that a log cabin should be built for his family at the edge of the site,

    and a small schoolhouse for the children.

    He began disposing of his assets in Nashville. He called Washington and

    Thomas Kirkman to him, and offered them his interest in the store.

    Washington laughed that he didn't want it, he was well set up in New

    Orleans and loved the life, so the store was formally deeded to Thomas

    Kirkman for the sum of one dollar, in the name of Irish friendship.

    Thomas was flabbergasted. Eleanor wept, and blessed her generous brother.

    James did not want to move his precious blooded horses to Alabama until

    proper stables and a racetrack had been built,

134 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

and so he arranged that his trainer, Colonel Elliot, should run the stables

in Nashville, and be responsible for the horses. He made Elliot a partner in

the enterprise.

    He sold his plantation and most of his land. In the new year, he cast aside

    his illness as he cast aside his old life, and moved his family to the

    hastily constructed log cabin, to supervise the building of his mansion.

    Now he had everything he had ever wanted. Now he was everything he had ever

    wanted to be.

In Florida, fortune briefly deserted her darling. Andrew's military

victories were impressive, but the ruthlessness with which he inflicted his

will on the Seminole was causing agitated controversy in Washington. When he

executed two Christian missionaries, claiming they had incited the Indians

to revolt, the controversy became uproar. When he invaded Pensacola for a

second time and imprisoned the governor for sheltering Indians, the uproar

became deafening. The loudest voices against him were William Crawford, the

secretary of war, and his onetime friend Henry Clay. The House of Rep-

resentatives threatened censure.

    The furious Andrew traveled to Washington to defend himself, and prevailed.

    All the motions against him were defeated. Because of his military success,

    the Spanish formally sold Florida to the United States for five million

    dollars.

    Andrew was given a hero's welcome in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia,

    and then returned to Nashville, to the Hermitage, and to his beloved

    Rachel. His feathers were ruffled, but his honor was satisfied.

    The following summer, Andrew was appointed governor of Florida, but he came

    to see James, because he had some other business to attend to first.

    He admired the mansion, which was now nearing completion, a simple elegant

    building in the temple style, with three enormous chimneys and twenty-one

    white columns surrounding the veranda at even intervals. A wide entrance

    hall ran through the middle of the house, with a cross hall at the rear.

    The kitchen and laundry were outhouses, attached to the main building by

    covered walkways.

Andrew helped James plant a magnolia sapling at the edge

    BLOODLINES 135

of the hill on what would be the lawn, and played with the new baby,

Sarah.

    "A sassy little thing," he laughed. "But there are too many Sarahs."

So he called her Sassy, which suited her.

    Andrew junior and Lincoyen were with their father and played with Al,

    while Cap'n Jack yarned with Alfred, and inspected the racecourse that

    had been laid out to one side of the drive.

"There is the matter of the Chickasaw land," Andrew said.

    James waited, knowing what the outcome of the conversation would be.

But he would make Andrew ask, first.

Andrew had been commissioned by the government, with Isaac Shelby, to

treat for some Chickasaw land, to the north, where Jimmy Doublehead lived.

Andrew estimated that three hundred thousand dollars would be a sufficient

outlay, and the sum was approved in principle. Privately, Andrew met with

a chief, George Colbert, who was known as "the soul of the Chickasaw," and

laid out his policy. Colbert's cooperation could enrich him personally,

but if the land was not sold to the government there would be war, and

many Chickasaw would die.

    George Colbert was pragmatic. He agreed to persuade his people in return

    for a permanent annuity for himself and his brother, Levi, of the right

    to reserve some good land for himself, and the purchase of a piece of

    land he owned for twenty thousand dollars. Andrew agreed.

    A formal public council of the Chickasaw was called. Andrew made a speech

    that was now familiar to him. If the Chickasaw did not agree to his

    terms, there would be war, and he would annihilate them as he had the

    Creek. If they did agree, the purchase price would be paid over ten

    years, after which they would move to new land, given freely by the gov-

    emment, in the west, beyond the Mississippi.

He shouted an offer. "One hundred and fifty thousand."

    The Chickasaw conferred among themselves, and shouted back their

    collective response.

"No! 11

136 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

"Two hundred thousand," Andrew shouted.

" No! "

    Andrew offered two hundred and fifty thousand, and the response was still

    no.

    Andrew appeared to confer with Isaac Shelby, and came back with what he

    said was his final offer.

"Three hundred thousand."

    Shelby called that they were not authorized to go that high, and Andrew

    responded that in order to be fair to the people, he would pay the

    difference out of his own pocket.

    The Chickasaw were confused and George Colbert saw his moment. He made a

    speech in which he accepted Andrew's terms on his own behalf. His brother,

    Levi, made a speech in which he agreed to the terms, and one by one the

    chiefs accepted.

    They demanded the first payment, and the Colberts wanted their bribes

    immediately. Andrew, perpetually short of ready money or reluctant to use

    his own, doubted that he could persuade the government to part with the

    cash quickly enough to satisfy the Chickasaw. He came to James.

"How much?" James wondered, after Andrew had asked him.

"Fifty thousand," Andrew said.

    James stared at Andrew junior, A.J., and Lincoyen, who were playing

    settlers and braves on the land that would be the lawn. He could afford the

    money and could not deny Andrew, who had helped to make him rich. But he

    was planning on a political career himself, and he was concerned that some

    of his money would be used to pay the bribes. Still he agreed. He had never

    been able to deny Andrew anything.

    Andrew nodded, but did not thank him. They chatted for a while about the

    prospect of Alabama being admitted into the Union, and Andrew urged James

    to stand for election to the new state's senate. Soon after, he said tender

    farewells to James, Sally, and the children, greeted Cap'n Jack affably,

    and left with his sons and Alfred.

    James watched him go, and pondered what he had done. He remembered a small

    group of Indians, Creek probably, who had watched him on this same hill the

    day he bought the property, and he shivered a little, as he had shivered

    then.

    BLOODLINES 137

    Sally knew something was wrong, and worried that he might be ailing

    again. James shook his head, and walked into the shell of the house with

    her. They wandered through the spaces that soon would be rooms, planning

    how they would furnish them. Sally did not ask him about Andrew's visit.

    She guessed it was to do with money, and Andrew, but James didn't usually

    discuss these things with her anymore. To her surprise, this time he did.

    Sally listened in silence, and realized something extraordinary. Ever

    since she had complained that Andrew never repaid his loans, James had

    closed off a part of his life, his business dealings, from her. Now she

    thought she understood why. James would worry away at a problem until he

    either found a solution or, as in this case, needed her advice. It

    pleased her that he asked. It healed the only rift, no matter how tiny,

    that had ever existed between them.

    "The money is nothing," she said. "There is the matter of your good

    name."

James nodded, for she had come straight to the heart.

"But I can't refuse him," he said. "I owe him too much."

    Sally didn't entirely agree, but kept her counsel. On the matter of his

    friendship with Andrew, James could be extraordinarily touchy.

    "The government will not pay?" she asked, looking for a solution.

    "Eventually, but not in time," James said. "It has to go through all the

    requisite departments."

"So the land will be lost?"

    "Not forever, because Andrew will not allow it to be lost," James told

    her. "He will make war, and he will win."

"Andrew always wins," Sally said with a smile.

She thought for a moment.

"What if you bought the land'?"

James was astonished.

"Don't you think we have enough?"

    That was not Sally's point. If the government were to give, through

    Andrew, deeds to some of the land, it would always appear that James's

    money had been used for a purchase. Then, at some later date, when the

    funds were freed by Washington and his money repaid, James would return

    the title deeds.

138 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    James assimilated what she said, and then laughed out loud. It was so

    simple, so beautifully simple. He hugged his wife to him.

"Oh, I love you," he said.

    Getting Andrew to agree was a protracted business, conducted through

    correspondence. James wrote, expressing his concern at the size of the

    loan, and requesting some title deeds as collateral. Andrew replied,

    rather sharply, that he was surprised that James had reneged on his

    original unconditional offer of the money, and assumed that the bribes

    were worrying James, that the government would not reimburse them. There

    was no need for concern. Andrew had simply told the government that he

    had been forced to pay somewhat more for the land than he had expected.

    Still James insisted on the collateral, and eventually Andrew gave in.

    Title deeds to several lots of the Chickasaw land were made out in

    James's name, and he sent Andrew the money in return. Later, when

    Washington had completed its paperwork, James got his money back, and

    returned the deeds to the government.

    James felt good. He had obliged his friend, and covered his own position.

    For once in his life he had outsmarted Andrew, who might be a better man

    on the battleground or in a duel, but in matters of business, James was

    the champion. He was also one of the richest and most influential men in

    the state.

Then came the news that his father had died, in Ireland. James was not