Queen (92 page)

    meant to him.

    She smelled something burning. The potatoes had boiled dry. She jumped

    up, snatched the pan from the stove, venting her frustration in energy.

Her hopes never came true. Slowly, very slowly, inch by inch, day by day,

the circumstances of the family improved, although they never regained

anything of their former fortune. Ja5s sold some small parQuIs of land,

and put other acreage out for rent. Encouraged by friends, he allowed them

to put his name forward as a candidate for the state legislature, and was

elected senator. His reimbursement was not large, and he was required to

spend a great deal of time in Montgomery, but at least he had an income,

which was more than many of

    QUEEN 559

his friends had, and a job that gave him the opportunity to be of some

value to his constituency. He brought the children back from Florence,

believing that they belonged at The Forks, at their home, no matter how

difficult their daily travel to school might be. It was as well that he

did so, for Elizabeth, his half sister, died soon afterward., She had

never ceased mourning for Tom, and preferred to be with him in some kind

of peace, no matter how ethereal, rather than face the difficulties of the

world in which they now lived.

Sally wept for her daughter's death, for she would miss her, but she was

no stranger to death; indeed she almost seemed to welcome the concept of

it for herself. She spent days poring over the obituaries as published in

the skimpy daily newspaper, and attended whatever funerals she could. With

the small improvement in her diet, her eyesight seemed to get better, or

perhaps it was because the war was over, and Jass was home, and, with the

end of slavery, a great burden of responsibility had been taken from her.

Almost for the first time in her life, Sally had time for herself.

Lizzie positively flowered. Since there was no longer any point in trying

to be a Southern belle, and she was getting a little old for it, she no

longer tried. There were few opportunities for glittering social

occasions, as in the old days, for no one could afford them and had little

to celebrate other than sheer survival. She channeled her formidable

energy into the management of her house and the care of family. And her

love for Jass. Or her gratitude to him. He had come home when so many had

not, and Lizzie could not bear the idea of life as a widow. Although

efficient and capable in her own right, she was a woman who believed she

needed a husband to enable her to function at her best. Jass was surprised

by the change in her, especially when he took her to bed and she welcomed

him into her, and gave every indication that the experience, far from

being unpleasant to her, as latterly, gave her pleasure. If Jass had been

a suspicious man, he might have thought that she had taken a lover in his

absence, but he no longer tried to rationajize or examine what was, or

what might have been. He dedicated his energy to a better present.

560 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    Lizzie even came to an uneasy understanding with Queen, or at least

    recognized her existence. Now that Queen had an official position within

    the household, as paid staff member, some edge of anxiety was removed from

    Lizzie. But she was a tough, relentless mistress, and was not shy of

    demanding longer hours and harder work from her servant, if that was

    possible. She still harbored resentment of her, and perhaps hoped that if

    the job was made unbearable, Queen would leave of her own volition.

But Queen would not go, nor could she think of any reason why she should. If

she was grumpy to others, she always presented to Jass a sunshine face, and

hid from him any hurt or resentment that she felt. When told that Lizzie was

pregnant again, she smiled, and congratulated her Massa, although privately,

in her room, she wept. Jass didn't need any more children. He did not fully

appreciate one that he already had.

    Thus her life became less than it had been when she was a slave. Then, she

    had been able to persuade herself that she occupied some special place

    within her Massa's heart and house.

Now she was simply a drudge.

    .65

Alec Henderson was doing rather better than most. When he arrived back at

The Forks of Cypress after his long trek home, he was greeted with

surprising warmth by Letitia, and cordially by Sally and Lizzie. As soon as

politeness would allow, he went to his cottage alone, and, to his relief,

found that his cache of gold had not been disturbed.

    He chuckled, and laughed, and hopped an unlikely jig in the empty room. He

    was rich. Not really rich in the way that landed gentry had been, but

    compared to almost anyone else in the district, he was a man of fiscal

    means. He had a meager

    QUEEN 561

dinner at the big house where Letitia was now living, and explained to

them something of his plans. Obviously, there was no place for him at The

Forks. Without slaves, they had no need of an overseer, and could not

afford one anyway. He planned to take Letitia away for a holiday to

Charleston, to see her family and discover their postwar circumstances.

He had not told his wife of this, and she gave a little shriek of joy- ,

    When he took her to bed that night, he made love to her with a vigor and

    passion that sur

    .prised her, and she responded with an enthusiasm that

    intrigued him. Letitia supposed he had taken other

    women, whores probably, while he was away at the war and

    it did not bother her. It was a man's prerogative, and

    soldiers did that sort of thing. But she would not

    tolerate that sort of behavior now he was home, and the

    best way to keep a man happy was to let him know he was

    needed and appreciated. She entered into their

    lovemaking with energy, although tempered with a

    missionary correctness. She had found no outlet for her

    own physical needs while he was away, and was surprised

    to discover that she had desires for him. She caressed

    him afterward, and they discussed their future.

    Henderson thought they would do well with a little farm,

    for life on the land was all he knew, but Letitia had

    other ambitions. They could not afford a large holding,

    nor the hands for a cotton crop, and she had no

    intention of being married to a tobacco farmer.

    She wanted to own a small store, a place of general provisions, and he

    could maintain his association with the land, and get the produce they

    sold at bargain prices. She was a shopgirl at heart, and they would do

    well, because they would give credit to reliable customers.

    Henderson was appalled. Credit was a fool's game. They could never be

    sure of being repaid.

    "No," said Letitia. "It is the way of the future. No one has any money

    now, so they will flock to us, and we will extend ourselves. But things

    will get better, because they cannot possibly get any worse. Money will

    be made, and it will be owed to us, so gentlefolk will be bound to us by

    what they owe, and will continue to shop with us, if only out of

    embarrassment or gratitude."

562 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    Henderson continued to argue, but his was a hopeless cause. Letitia had

    her mind set on a particular way of doing business, and she was a

    formidable opponent. She never asked him where he got the money to fund

    their new enterprise, and she never told her husband of the joy it would

    give her when those who had previously shunned her, or sneered at her,

    were forced to come begging for her largess.

They spent a pleasant three weeks in Charleston, and Letitia, who had no

fondness for her ungrateful family, gloried in the dire circumstances of

her relatives. Her father was dead, killed by drink, and her mother was

reduced to taking in paying guests of the lower white classes. Her brother

had never volunteered to fight, but had taken the coward's way, run the

blockade and gone to sea on Yankee merchant ships. Her sisters were both

widowed by the war, and one lived in the attic of her mother's house,

while the other had fallen considerably from grace, and received gentleman

callers who paid for the privilege. All this misfortune nourished

'Letitia's moral rectitude, and as the weather got hotter she was content

to travel back to Alabama with her husband and look for a suitable shop

to buy, secure in the knowledge that she, alone of her family, had a good

husband, prospects, and a Christian conscience.

    They found a suitable building some two miles from The Forks of Cypress,

    on the southern side, away from Florence. It was ideal. Folk who did not

    wish to make the arduous and often dangerous journey to town could now

    come to them. Including, perhaps, the high and mighty Jacksons. Letitia

    had no love for her former employers, who were not ardently religious and

    espoused some liberal ideas. Even though she had sought sanctuary in the

    big house during the war, it was from loneliness, she told herself now,

    not from fear, and both Sally and Lizzie had treated her with some

    disdain, constantly, tacitly reminding her that she was present only as

    a favor. Nor could she imagine how they could let that bastard mulatta

    girl, living proof of the Massa's immorality, share the same roof and

    prepare their food.

    Henderson went about the countryside, renewing old acquaintances and

    offering to buy their harvests for minimal rec-

    QUEEN 563

ompense. The exigencies of the time gave him several reliable suppliers.

Letitia employed two nigras to paint and clean the old wooden building.

She had a counter made, and shelves, purchased a fine set of brass scales,

and, aproned and capped in clean, neat gingham, opened her shop for

business.

    They did well, but not well enough to expand the store or staff, for they

    gave credit freely, and bit quite heavily into Henderson's savings. He

    had fretted about this for some time, but when the first repayment was

    made on a debt, he relaxed, for at last he could see some potential for

    return on his outlay. And his was a pleasant life. Letitia required

    nothing of him but that he keep her shelves stocked, and so he spent his

    days riding round the country, chewing the fat with friends, and his

    evenings in the company of like-minded whites, reminiscing about the war,

    and planning vengeance on Yankees and uppity niggers. Gradually, the

    store became a meeting place for those young white males who responded

    to Henderson's genial authority and who believed that the South would

    rise again in glory, and the niggers be sent back to hell, where they

    belonged.

    Letitia's life was at least as pleasant, monarch of her small domain, and

    she had a taste of triumph within a week of the store's opening. Jass had

    come to her, asking for credit to buy food. He was not shy or diffident

    about it, although it was anathema to him, but Letitia sensed his

    distaste for the business and for her, and dragged it out as long as

    possible, extracting every ounce of pleasure from it that she could.

    Jass was scrupulous in his dealings with her. Whenever a little money

    came his way, he would pay something from his bill, although every visit

    to the bombastic proprietress repelled him. He went himself only when he

    had money in his pocket. Otherwise, he sent Queen.

Queen hated going to the store. She hated asking for credit, and she and

Mrs. Henderson conducted their business with mutual loathing. More than

anything, Queen hated the white men who were always hanging around outside

the shop, lounging, loafing, threatening. On her first visits, with Jass,

they had ignored her, although clearly appreciative of her prettiness. One

crisp fall day, Jass was in Montgomery, and Queen had

564 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

gone on her own. Three of these rednecked men were inside the shop,

seated, or squatting against the wall, by the small potbelly stove in the

comer. Mr. Henderson was with them, and while Queen shopped she was aware

of their silent concentration on her. She had to pass close by one young

man, dirty and unshaven, to inspect a bag of dried beans, and he did not

move his feet out of the way, but leered at her.

    "Nice day for it, lady," he said, but it was not pleasant, and Henderson

    chuckled.

    "Don't bother with her," he told his companions. "She's high yalla."

Queen blushed, and the men whistled.

    "Could have fooled me," one said. "Don't matter a damn," said another.

    "I don't mind a little midnight velvet."

    They laughed, and stared at Queen, and she changed her mind about the