Horse

To pay Annie an appropriate sum for her painting, Martha makes a deal with Jackson Pollock. In exchange for her convertible, which he has long admired, he will trade her two of his enamel paintings, which she will then sell. After writing Annie a check for $1,000, Martha hangs the portrait of Lexington back in her apartment among the photographs of her mother and Lexington’s descendant, Royal Eclipse.

Scott, on furlough, comes to Woodburn. Incorporating his newfound confidence in the realm of portraiture, Scott depicts Jarret and Lexington as they have always been: together. Jarret is moved, saying, “This time, you set down who Lexington is” (336). Scott suggests Jarret join the Union Army for the benefit of emancipation. Jarret would never leave Lexington, though, and Robert Alexander pays him a fair wage. Further, he cannot see the logic in electively entering into another situation of subservience and sacrifice.

A notorious raiding party led by the cruel, pro-slavery William Quantrill invades Woodburn. Quantrill demands Alexander’s horses, promising violence, and presenting a hostage: Viley. Quantrill demands Lexington, dismissing Alexander’s protest that Lexington is blind; he says Jarret, a grown man, is a “boy here [who] can ride him” (341). Scott had hoped to warn Jarret, but he has been tied up. Alexander is forced to bring the raiders to the barn. Looters ransack the property, one man stealing a portrait of Lexington from Jarret’s cabin. At the stallion barn, the raiders find Lexington and Jarret are gone.

When Theo contacts a historian of Thomas J. Scott’s known works to inform her of his discovery, she replies with an offer of $15,000 for the painting from a buyer in Kentucky. Theo decides to return the painting to his neighbor. Jess admires Theo’s graciousness but disagrees with his choice, saying the painting was clearly unappreciated by presumably racist people. Theo believes the widow is likely in need of the money. Theo asks Jess to come with him because he thinks the widow will be more comfortable if a white woman is present.

Theo decides to go for a run. Jess is wearing his Georgetown Hoyas shirt, so he opts for his rain jacket. On the path, Clancy is alerted to something. Theo follows and discovers another runner, a woman who has fallen into a ravine and is lying unconscious. He tries to call 911, but his phone has no signal. He proceeds down the slope, checking the woman for injuries. He is asking if she is all right when he hears “Police! Freeze!” (348).

Jarret and Lexington follow Quantrill. They stop, seeing Viley in the road. Viley urges Jarret to turn around to avoid capture. However, the raiders have stolen at least six of Lexington’s descendants. Jarret would never leave them, especially not to such cruel and hateful people. Viley believes the raiders will be at the home of Judge Sayers. He is too injured to ride, so Jarret commands Lexington to kneel and lifts Viley onto the saddle with him. Viley expresses his regret over Lexington’s purchase, saying, “We shouldn’t have done what we did. This horse – it should have been yours. Richard and I—I put him up to it—I showed him the way to get around Warfield. It was wrong” (350). Jarret delivers Viley to the Kirkland family and proceeds to the Sayers farm. He sneaks up to the property, assessing the situation. He waits, then uses his knife to dispatch Scott’s two guards. He and Scott rescue the horses. Scott rides back to his unit while Jarret, Alexander’s stolen horses in tow, rides Lexington away.

While he runs, Jess peruses Theo’s research. Theo has discovered the possibility that Harry was dispossessed of Lexington, citing Viley’s copy of the Kentucky Association rules, annotated beside the passage prohibiting “negro or mulatto” participation (356).

Jess calls Theo’s phone and a man answers, identifying himself as a homicide detective investigating an “interrupted assault” resulting in the death of the “attacker” at the hands of a police officer. When she is told that Theo is the presumed assailant, she is stunned. The detective and a female officer arrive at the apartment. Jess identifies Theo as a Georgetown graduate student. Uneasy looks pass between the detective and his associate. Their questions seem to Jess like defensive attempts to excuse the behavior of the officer involved. The detective asks why Theo would run in a black hoodie at night. Jess replies that he typically wears the Georgetown Hoyas shirt she is currently wearing. The detective asks about Theo’s connections to Africa and the Middle East, and whether Theo is Muslim. When Jess explains that his parents were both high-profile diplomats, the detective and the officer exchange another anxious glance.

Jarret returns to the Kirkland farm. He cannot risk returning to Woodburn, since Quantrill will look there, upon discovering the horses reclaimed. Instead, he will proceed to Illinois, where Robert Alexander maintains a property he’d purchased for emergencies like this. Jarret asks a woman for paper and ink, writing to Alexander and creating two passes. One pass states the horses are bound for the Federal Army, the other states they are a gift for a Confederate general. Jarret will produce either note depending upon who he encounters. Jarret brings Lexington and his descendants to the Illinois property without incident. In the coming days, Alexander covertly begins to transport his horse by rail, until they are all safe.

At the D.C. Medical Examiner’s office, Jess identifies Theo’s remains. She collects Clancy at a local animal shelter. Outside Theo’s apartment, a woman introduces herself as Justine Treadwell from The Washington Post. Justine’s pieces center around issues of human rights, racial injustice, and police misconduct. The police report states that a patrol officer “interrupted an apparent assault” (369). The author of the report classified the cell phone in Theo’s hand as “an object the officer believed was a firearm” (369). The injured runner has a concussion and cannot remember what happened, but her injuries are consistent with her fall. Jess and Justine concur that Theo was trying to help her when his intentions were grossly misinterpreted. Jess is enthusiastic about helping Justine write a profile of Theo, but then realizes that “everything she knew about Theo was, now, all she would ever know” (371).

In 1875, Jarret arrives at the New York offices of Turf, Field and Farm. Colonel Sanders Deweese Bruce offers his condolences on Lexington’s passing. Bruce asks if it is true that Jarret spent every day with Lexington from his birth to his passing. Jarret confirms that, except for a few months each year that Jarret spent in Canada, he and Lexington remained inseparable. Sensing Lexington’s time was coming to an end, Jarret remained in Kentucky. On the first day in July 1875, Lexington, his head resting in Jarret’s lap, had passed away peacefully.

Bruce is surprised to learn that Jarret will be moving to Canada with his wife and child. Jarret explains:

You must be aware of the rising difficulty for men like me in the Thoroughbred world. You must know that for some who supported the Southern cause, the war is not over. They deplore their reduced circumstances and do not care to see someone like me finding success (376).

Jarret observes that Turf, Field and Farm is in a position to use their platform to help change those dynamics, then reminds Bruce why he has come: for Thomas J. Scott’s best painting, the one he had done at Woodburn in Chapter 47. Jarret is moved to tears to see himself once again with Lexington; he no longer owns any of Scott’s Lexington paintings, since he had gifted the one to May and never recovered the other from Quantrill’s raiding party. The painting had found its way to Turf, Field and Farm’s headquarters during the war, when Scott sent it north to Julien. Jarret produces a check and asks that it be wrapped promptly, so that he can return home with it, to Canada.

Theo’s killer is reinstated, without consequences. Daniel, Theo’s friend, asks if there is anything of Theo’s Jess would like to have. Jess asks if she can keep Clancy; all of Theo’s friends agree the dog should remain with her. Jess stops by the apartment to collect the Lexington painting Theo had meant to return to his neighbor. When Jess expresses disbelief over the nature of Theo’s death, Daniel informs her that he and Theo’s friends were not surprised. They had tried to impress upon Theo the high stakes involved in interactions between Black men and police in America.

Jess brings the painting across the street. The widow says her husband inherited it from his great-grandfather, who acquired it during the Civil War. When the widow expresses her desire to thank Theo, she is shocked to learn from Jess that Theo was the shooting victim in the park. Jess, assuming the woman is going to make a racist comment, leaves quickly; watching her go, the widow comments, “He was very nice—for a student” (386).

At the International Museum of the Horse in Kentucky, where Lexington’s skeleton will be placed on display in a new exhibit dedicated to the American Thoroughbred, Jess is stunned to see Theo’s rescued painting in the exhibit hall. Its plaque reads: “Lexington, as a colt, painted by Thomas J. Scott at The Meadows, circa 1851. Given in memory of Theodore Naade Northam” (387). The director explains that the painting was bought for the museum by a donor, and that the memorial to Theo was a condition insisted upon by the seller.

A man enters the gallery, demanding, in an Australian accent, to know why Lexington’s eye socket is misshapen. Jess explains, and he walks off without comment. The following day the same man offers her a job. He has a collection of skeletal remains from more than 100 extinct species, the eldest specimen a 47-million-year-old Dawn Horse. He wants Jess to articulate the animals engaged in the act of procreation. Jess finds his offer absurd, but then considers the amount of knowledge she might obtain from the study of such ancient specimens. Jess accepts and begins preparing to relocate to Australia. With Clancy tucked away below her, and their flight underway, Jess falls asleep, dreaming of Lexington thundering across the desert of Australia, his ancient ancestors the Dawn Horses following in his wake.