Queen (64 page)

    now, this was his hope for the future, this would be his reason for

    living. Most of all, he wanted to tell Jass.

Julie, the cook, had done the family proud. They'd had a soup of crawfish,

caught in the dam by Ephraim, and a leg of mutton, attended by two roast

capons, with new potatoes and sweet potatoes, fresh string beans and baby

carrots, all with a thick, delicious gravy.

    The table looked elegant, the room warm and imposing. The men wore formal

    evening clothes, and the ladies were beautifully gowned, although Mrs.

    Perkins was ostentatiously caparisoned with too much opulent jewelry.

    Every time Mr. Perkins looked at his wife, he remembered the cost of the

    gems, and he wondered if Becky would ever stop spending money. He ate

    little, even though he was not paying for the meal, because of his

    stomach problems, and because he always ate frugally, as if to counteract

    the expense of his wife's gargantuan appetite. William and Alexander were

    away at college in New Jersey, but George still had another year at

    Reverend Sloss's Academy in Florence, and he had joined them for dinner.

    The triumph of the evening was the dessert, which Parson Dick and Polly

    were serving, an elaborate confection of cake

    MERGING 385

and pink, strawberry-flavored icing, dotted with cherries preserved in

brandy. Jass had opened a bottle of French champagne to drink with it.

"To the happy couple," Mr. Perkins said,

    Sally and Mrs. Perkins raised their glasses in the toast. Lizzie smiled,

    and looked radiant.

    "It will be the wedding of the year. Of the decade!" Mrs. Perkins gushed.

    "And not a nigra to be seen!"

    Sally laughed. Alfred and Gracie's wedding in Nashville was remembered

    occasionally, and it still rankled with Becky Perkins.

    "Are you still smarting about that?" Sally asked. "It was such fun."

    "It was a disgrace to put blacks in such proximity to white women," Mrs.

    Perkins retorted. "I said no good would come of it. And no good did. Why,

    wasn't it one of your slaves, that gel who danced with a white man?"

Jass tried to defend Easter.

    "That was all a silly mistake," he said. "And she didn't actually dance

    with him."

    Lizzie had clear memories of the wedding and its attendant parties, but she

    only vaguely remembered the incident they were talking about, and the fuss

    it caused. A blurry image came into her mind of Jass leading some nigra out

    of the bam. She had a funny name, a very Christian one. Christmas? Easter?

Mr. Perkins was inclined to make a speech.

    "Nevertheless," he droned, "we must be constantly on our guard.

    Miscegenation will be the downfall of the South."

Jass looked at him steadily.

    "I've seen plantation children you would swear were white," Mr. Perkins

    continued. "We all have. How can we know what they really are? And if their

    blood mixes with ours, we'll all have a touch of the tarbrush soon. Why,

in

    that cesspool, New Orleans--

Sally thought it was time to change the subject.

    "Perhaps we ladies should refire-T' she hinted, and Becky Perkins stood in

    relief. The subject was hardly a fit one to be discussed in front of

    ladies.

Lizzie was about to rise when a slave came bursting into

386 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

the room unannounced. Lizzie was shocked. Really, discipline in this house

was very lax. Something would be done about it when she was in charge. She

glanced at Sally, who seemed oddly anxious about the arrival, or perhaps

it was just the rudeness of it.

Cap'n Jack was breathless and beaming.

    "Scuse me, Massa," he said, '16' comin' in like this, but a slave chile

    jus' been bom, a sweet I'il girl."

    None of the Perkinses could understand the fuss. Slave children were born

    all the time, and no one rushed into dining rooms to announce it.

    None of the Jacksons knew quite what to say, and for a moment there was

    a thunderous silence. Then George did a terrible thing.

He giggled.

    He blushed with embarrassment and stuffed his napkin into his mouth to

    hide his laughter, and Jass and Sally tried to cover for him.

    "That's wonderful news, Cap'n Jack," Jass said. "Give the mother our

    congratulations," Sally said at the same time.

    Cap'n Jack responded to Sally. "I surely will, m'm," he said. "Easter's

    doin' jus' fine. I so sorry to disturb you." He left the room.

    Mrs. Perkins humphed and sat down. Now she understood. Everyone knew that

    Easter was Jass's folie d'amour. Well, most people knew. One person in

    the room didn't know. She looked at Lizzie.

Everyone looked at Lizzie. And Lizzie stared at Jass.

    It was not that the truth came to her in a blinding flash. It was as if

    small pieces of a puzzle, gathered together over the years, slowly began

    to form and fit with each other, and make a complete picture.

"Easter?" she said, and Jass held her look.

    "She does the weaving," he replied, knowing that Lizzie had to know

    eventually. Lizzie looked at the assembled party, at her mother, who was

    doing elaborate things with her dessert, and at her father, who was

    caressing his complaining stomach and staring at the ceiling. She looked

    at George, who was trying hard to be serious, but she knew that a grin

    was twitching at the comer of his mouth. At Sally, who was staring

    MERGING 387

at her plate. None of them would look her in the eye except Jass. Suddenly

Lizzie realized that she was the only one who hadn't known.

    She couldn't absorb it, but knew it was true. Easter. The name had flitted

    around at the edges of her mind over the years, and she could only just put

    a face to that name, but when she did, the face allied itself to Jass's.

    She knew Jass must have been getting "relief," as some women called it,

    from someone-all men did, apparently-although what he was being relieved

of

    was not exactly clear to her. Mrs. Perkins had instructed her daughter

    zealously in all matters of society except those pertaining to

    cohabitation. The little knowledge that Lizzie did have had been garnered

    from more sophisticated girlfriends. But she knew enough.

    Now it was all crystal clear to her. She stared at Jass in horror, and

    despised him. What hurt her most was that she had found out now, when only

    a few seconds ago she had been so very happy.

    She felt like an abject fool. She almost fainted, and it was a genuine

    swoon, not the affectation that she used as a social accoutrement. She

    clutched the table for Support.

    "Suddenly, I do not feel very well," she said. "The winethe heat-"

    She ran from the room. Mrs. Perkins saw all her plans for a brilliant

    marriage and a secure future for Lizzie fade to nothing. She hurried after

    her daughter.

    "She gets sick headaches," she told them in unnecessary explanation, and

    was gone.

    Jass and Sally both stood, not knowing quite what to do. George remained

    sitting, shamefaced.

Mr. Perkins was babbling on about the cost of slaves.

    " . . . so much cheaper when they are born to the plantation, an endless

    supply of free labor," he said. "We should give thanks to God. Although the

    cost of maintaining my wife's entourage- "

    Sally nodded to Jass, and left the room. Jass sat down, and offered Mr.

    Perkins more champagne.

    Mr. Perkins declined. "My stomach, y'know. Do you have any port?"

388 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

In the weaving house, the lamp was low. Easter was asleep in the bed, and

Cap'n Jack was sitting in Jass's rocking chair, by the embers of the fire,

rocking the tiny baby on his knee, and singing her a soft lullaby.

    Sally came in. Cap'n Jack was pleased to see her, although he regretted

    it was not Jass.

"Here she is, m'm," he whispered. "A little princess."

    Sally took the child and held her close. She was incredulous. The babe

    couldn't be this white. It wasn't possible. What on earth would her life

    be like?

    As the child snuggled into her bosom, Sally's heart was touched by her,

    and she felt the first stirrings of something she always felt when she

    held her new grandchildren for the first time, something very close to

    love.

Lizzie had run to her bedroom and thrown herself on the bed, weeping. She

heard her mother come in and sit beside her, but ignored her until the

pain was less intense.

    "I won't marry him!" she cried, but her words were muffled, her face

    buried in the pillow. She meant it, though. Lizzie had a very strict

    morality, and despite a superficial sophistication, a very limited

    knowledge of the world. Jass was hers; she had no intention of sharing

    him with another woman, and especially not a nigra.

"I won't, I swear I won't," she cried again.

    Mrs. Perkins, who had been waiting for the worst of the storm to pass.

    was ready for her.

    "Oh, yes, you will," she said. Her tone was gentle and crooning, but

    there was steel behind it.

    "You will have a long engagement," Mrs. Perkins continued. "And in time

    you will become used to the idea-"

"Never!" Lizzie protested into the pillow.

    --and you will be grateful for it!" Mrs. Perkins commanded. She had to

    make her daughter understand. Perhaps she had been very wrong to shelter

    Lizzie from certain facts of life, but she had always assumed her

    daughter would learn these things from other girls. She'd been so

    determined that Lizzie would become a "lady" that she had even been

    unable to tell her about a woman's times of the month, but had her slave

    housekeeper do it. Lizzie had learned things from her

    MERGING 389

peers, but she was so wrapped up in becoming the belle her mother wanted her

to be, she paid little attention to it. So the knowledge was piecemeal, like

Cap'n Jack's learning, and never formed a consistent whole.

    "A woman's lot is not a happy one, and the slave girls are our salvation,"

    she told Lizzie. "If it were not for them, we would have to submit to our

    husbands' brutish desires whenever they felt-healthy-"

    It got through to Lizzie. The idea of the monster unleashed appalled her.

    But not Jass, surely? He was such a gentleman to her. She had not expected

    that he would be inexperienced on their wedding night, but she had not

    thought he would have a permanent mistress, and how could he allow the fact

    of his infidelity to be thrown in her face tonight, of all nights? It was

    this sense of hurt to herself that was provoking such bitter

    disappointment. She had a truly terrible thought. She looked up from the

    pillow.

    "Not Papa, surely?" she said in wonder. Not her dear, sweet, tubby, balding

    Papa?

    Melancholy settled on Mrs. Perkins, and she nodded her head.

"All men are the same," she said. "Lecherous brutes."

    "Not Papa?" Lizzie said again, and Mrs. Perkins nodded again.

    "If it were not for our slave girls, I don't know what I would do," she

    said sadly. "Your father is a demon when he's aroused. "

    It wasn't true. Mr. Perkins made very few sexual demands on his wife, far

    too few in her book, but Lizzie was going through a dangerous crisis, and

    had to be brought safe to a haven.

    "Next summer, you will go to Paris, France, for your trousseau. That will

    take at least a year." Mrs. Perkins believed that time was the great

    healer. "And then you will have to visit all your relations-"

Lizzie stared at the ceiling.

Jass stared at his glass of brandy. Mr. Perkins had retired to bed, and Jass

had admonished George, and then laughed with him about the incident, and

accepted his brother's congratu-

    390 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

lations. George had a keen sense of the irony of the situation, and had

accepted Jass's invitation to some brandy. George expressed his surprise

that Jass was not more worried about Lizzie.

    "Oh, she'll come round," Jass said casualty. "Her mother will talk sense

    into her."

"What if she decides she won't marry you?"

    Jass had not seriously considered this possibility. He was sorry that

    Lizzie had found out the way she had, but at least it was out in the open.

    Jass had no intention of ending his relationship with Easter after his

    marriage, and so the sooner Lizzie got used to the idea, the better.

    "She'll marry me," Jass told George. "I'm too good a catch for her."

    George raised his eyebrows. Jass was not non-nally so cocky.

    "Bit full of yourself, aren't you, Brother?" he said in surprise.

    Jass grinned and winked, and suddenly he was good old Jass again. "Don't