Mary’s lips part, but she doesn’t speak. The loneliness in her expression gives way to something more fierce.
“What happened?” says Sally Hemings.
“Well, he did get angry. He told me he couldn’t do nothing less I talked to Colonel Bell first. And I told him Colonel Bell already told me he loved my children and he wanted me to have them with me.”
Sally Hemings sits back with a furrowed brow.
“What?” says Mary.
“Did Colonel Bell really say that?”
“Of course he did! He said, ‘I love you, and I love your children, and I want you to have what makes you happy.’ That’s exactly what he said.”
Sally Hemings makes a dubious grunt.
“What?”
“Well, Mr. Jefferson told me that Colonel Bell said that since Joey was Mr. Fossett’s son, and Betsy was Mr. Fairchild’s, he didn’t see why he should have to bear the expense of raising them.”
“He wouldn’t ever say something like that!”
“Are you sure?” asks Sally Hemings.
“Of course! He never said that. I know that for a fact.”
“Not even to Mr. Jefferson?”
Mary is silent a long time. When tears begin to stream down her face again, she doesn’t bother to wipe them away. “I don’t care about that!” she says. “I just can’t stand not having Joey and Betsy here with me. I think about them all the time. I just can’t stand it. I tried. Been five months, and it only gets worse and worse. Sometimes it’s so bad I want to kill myself.”
~ ~ ~
It is almost a week before Sally Hemings has a chance to intervene on Mary’s behalf concerning Joey and Betsy. Congress is about to begin its winter session, and Thomas Jefferson has been in daily communication with James Madison about how they might make the most of the near collapse of Colonel Hamilton’s newly established national bank. Also, for reasons that Sally Hemings does not fully understand, the Marquis de Lafayette has been declared an enemy of the French Revolution. Fearing for his life, he fled France, hoping to make his way in the United States, but before he could get onto a boat, he was arrested by the Austrians, who are now threatening to execute him. Thomas Jefferson has been writing to everyone he can think of who might possibly intercede on his dear friend’s behalf, but he is terribly afraid. He hardly sleeps at night and keeps telling Sally Hemings that he feels utterly helpless. And as if all of this were not enough, every corridor at Monticello is blocked by baskets, trunks and heaps of laundry. Martha is getting ready to return to Edgehill now that she has recovered from giving birth to her daughter, and Maria is packing to spend the year in Philadelphia with her father.
Sally Hemings is in Maria’s chamber, folding clothing and placing it in a trunk, when eight-year-old Davy knocks on the door and informs her that Mr. Jefferson has gone for a ride and wants her to tidy his study. This is a signal that she should put on her riding boots and proceed directly to the stable, where Jupiter will have Goodfellow saddled and ready for her. She glances at Maria, who meets her eye for half a second, then looks away, continuing her ongoing pretense that she doesn’t know what Davy’s messages actually mean. When Maria comes back from Philadelphia, Critta will be her maid, and Sally Hemings’s sole responsibility will be to take care of Thomas Jefferson’s chambers.
Some forty-five minutes later, she meets a very weary-looking Thomas Jefferson on the western shore of the lake. The first quarter mile of their journey down to the lodge is along a road broad enough for them to ride side by side, and this is where Sally Hemings decides to fulfill her promise to her sister. Hardly a word is out of her mouth before Thomas Jefferson interrupts her.
“I’ve already been through all of this with Mary,” he says, “and I don’t know what else there is to discuss.”
“She’s in a terrible way. She’s been missing Joey and Betsy so dearly she says she’s not sure she can go on living.”
“What nonsense! Tell her she’s free to visit the children anytime she likes. And they can join her at Colonel Bell’s on Sundays and holidays.”
“But she wants them to live with her! And so does Colonel Bell.”
“Well…” Thomas Jefferson is silent a long time. Then he says, “I think that’s something she’ll have to take up with her husband.”
“But she has! He told her straight out that he would love for the children to live with him.”
Thomas Jefferson gives Sally Hemings a skeptical glance. “I think it’s best not to meddle in other people’s private affairs.”
“But she’s miserable. And you are the only one with the power to reunite her with her children.”
“I’m sorry, Sally, I’ve given this matter all the attention I have time for. I have every sympathy for Mary. You know that. I know perfectly well what it is like to miss one’s child. But even so, a time comes when children must be allowed to make their own way in the world. I went off to school when I wasn’t much older than Joey—”
“But Betsy is nine years old!”
“Indeed, but that is older than Maria was when she journeyed across the ocean.”
Now it is Sally Hemings’s turn to cast a skeptical glance. She does not bother to say what she is thinking, because she can tell from the exaggerated attention Thomas Jefferson is paying to the reins of his horse that he knows — after all, one of the reasons he is bringing Maria with him to Philadelphia is to compensate for having abandoned her when she was so young.
“At the very least,” she says, “why don’t you have another talk with Colonel Bell?”
Thomas Jefferson gives her a beleaguered glance. “I’ll do what I can.” Then he kicks his horse’s flanks and moves in front of her as the wooded road narrows down into a path.
She doesn’t make it into Charlottesville for nearly two weeks, at which point Thomas Jefferson, Maria, Jimmy and Bobby are long gone. The very first thing she does is go over to Bell’s Store, but Mary is not comforted by Thomas Jefferson’s suggestion that she is free to visit her children and to have them visit her, and she has seen no indication that he spoke to her husband before leaving for Philadelphia.
“He’s been very busy.” Sally Hemings explains about Alexander Hamilton and the Marquis de Lafayette and ends by saying, “I’m sure that Colonel Bell will be receiving a letter on the matter any day now.”
Sally Hemings knows perfectly well that no such letter will ever arrive. But she tries to believe that it will for as long as she is with her sister and for some days afterward.
When, at last, she feels she has no choice but to face the facts, she comforts herself by resolving to speak to Thomas Jefferson as soon as he returns — at least if either of the two children seem truly to be miserable by then.
She watches them over the course of several months. While neither seems especially happy, she sees no evidence whatsoever that they are unhappy. Joey, in particular, strikes her as an entirely ordinary twelve-year-old boy — loud and rambunctious but never sullen or tearful. Betsy does seem a bit subdued, but perhaps she is only thoughtful. Both children, in any event, are being schooled in useful trades: Joey in blacksmithing and Betsy in sewing and child care. And what is more, neither child seems appreciably happier when their mother comes to visit. They are not rude to her by any means, nor are they joyful. As far as Sally Hemings can tell, their demeanor does not alter one jot in the presence of their mother.
Mary’s demeanor, on the other hand, alters dramatically as the months pass — at least in regard to her sister. At first she will greet Sally Hemings with nothing more than a baleful glance, but after a while not even that. On her part, Sally Hemings tries to look cheerful when she spots Mary and will raise her hand and call out a greeting, but her sister keeps her eyes to the ground and walks past as if she hasn’t seen or heard a thing. Ultimately Sally Hemings decides that Mary is simply not being realistic, neither about the malleability of Thomas Jefferson’s will nor about the true situation of her own children. As winter turns into spring and spring into summer, Sally Hemings becomes increasingly inclined to see her sister’s enduring misery as a matter of choice. Mary could choose to make the best of the situation, but she simply refuses to. Over the course of the year, Sally Hemings also notices that Mary’s hair goes from silver-laced brown to completely gray.