Ten Broeck’s Jarret (8)–Martha Jackson (4) Summary
Ten Broeck’s Jarret (8)
The attendance for Lexington’s race against time is unexpected and huge. Ten Broeck is pleased with the crowd but irritated with Jarret, who is complaining about how the track has been stripped and is rock hard. Lexington will run regardless. Two other horses will run with him in turns to give Lexington a sense of competition and challenge.
Lexington starts out at a fast pace, and Patrick holds him back. The other horses cannot keep up. The horse automatically seeks softer ground by the rail, and in the final stretch, he takes off like a shot. Lexington defeats Lecompte’s 7:26 record with a new 7:19:75 record of his own. After the race, Jarret realizes that the horse’s racing plates are loose and that seven nails have actually fallen out of one shoe. Patrick remarks that the horse has proven his bravery that day.
Patrick comes to Jarret after the race. Lecompte’s owner wants a rematch, and they both know the horse is not up to it. Patrick wants to tell Ten Broeck the truth. Jarret reflects on how he figured out that the horse was going blind even though Lexington compensated with his other senses. He cannot, however, understand why it is happening. The horse has had no injury. Jarret wants one more chance for Lexington to defeat Lecompte before the horse goes completely blind. He also does not trust Ten Broeck. The race day is set for April 14, 1855.
Competition is fierce among the horses’ supporters, and huge crowds gather again. Lexington seems to be at a disadvantage because of his smaller size, but the betting is actually in his favor. Scott tells Ten Broeck that Lecompte had a bad case of colic three days before, and the horse has still not recovered.
The two horses race head to head at first, but then Lexington pulls ahead. Lecompte cannot keep up even when his jockey thrashes him. Lexington wins the race, and Lecompte cannot run the second heat. Lexington now has the title of the “greatest horse of the era.”
Theo (7)
Clancy wakes Theo, who is regretting his abrupt departure from Jess’s place. The weekend with his friends has been canceled, and the meeting with his thesis adviser did not go well. She is hesitant about his project, which now focuses on Troye, Scott, and their depiction of Black horsemen. He is arguing an exception to the stereotypes, but she would prefer he focus on the stereotypes. His adviser has warned him that he has chosen a hard road.
Theo sends Jess a quick text, and she answers immediately. He takes the dog out and then goes to the Library of Congress to research. He discovers a reference to one of Scott’s paintings, Lexington with “Black Jarret, his groom.” The piece also mentions the horse’s blindness. The painting is unaccounted for.
Ten Broeck’s Jarret (9)
Ten Broeck speaks to Jarret at the corral. He already knows that Lexington is going blind, and he is disappointed that Jarret did not tell him. Jarret has asked to buy himself out of slavery, but that will not happen now. Ten Broeck scolds Jarret for deceiving him and not trusting him. He has sold both Jarret and Lexington. He meant to take them to England with him, but he will take Lecompte instead. Jarret may keep his money, but Ten Broeck is sending him and his horse to Robert Alexander in Kentucky, where Lexington will stand as a breeding sire. Scott will accompany them to Kentucky the next morning.
Jess (9)
Catherine calls Jess with the results...
(This entire section contains 1123 words.)
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of the scan on the horse’s skull. A dental infection led to the malformed bone, as they suspected. Catherine speculates that at some point the horse gorged himself on grain, and the food got caught in the lining of his sinus, causing an infection. Eventually, the optic nerve was damaged. The good eye also became inflamed.
Catherine notes that the horse’s blindness may have saved him, for Ten Broeck took other horses to England and raced them hard. He won big but ended up losing everything and died in poverty in California. Lecompte suffered greatly and died after his first race in England. Lexington led a quiet, easy life.
Alexander’s Jarret
The year is 1861. Jarret looks out at the Union Jack, the British flag, snapping in the wind. War will come soon. Jarret speaks about it with Napoleon Belland, a French Canadian boy who is an excellent rider. Kentucky is split in loyalties, and Alexander hopes the British flag will declare his neutrality. Alexander is currently in Illinois buying land in case they have to move the horses.
Jarret has taken on an authoritative role at Alexander’s farm and is in charge of all the horses. He proved himself to Alexander by his reading, good sense, and talent, and now Alexander consults him about every decision.
Lexington is eleven years old and completely blind, but he is still healthy and follows all of Jarret’s commands. His racing record is still unbroken, and he has made a name for himself again by the quality of his offspring, which also win races. The horse loves to go on rides with Jarret.
The artist Troye has been at the farm, painting portraits of the animals, but Jarret prefers Scott’s technique. Scott, in fact, painted Lexington again just after they moved to the farm. He made two paintings and gave one to Jarret. Scott told Jarret that he would enlist for the North if war came.
The painting hangs over the mantel in Jarret’s snug cottage. May and her son Robbie live with Jarret now after May’s husband, Robert, was sold south. Jarret cares for and protects the two of them, though it is not a legal marriage. Even with all his authority, Jarret is still enslaved.
Martha Jackson (4)
Martha is at her gallery, preparing to receive a new shipment of paintings. She thinks back to her first gallery in a converted townhouse. She lived month to month, somehow paying the bills as she displayed and sold a variety of paintings, many of them considered radical. The crowds gathered, and she eventually made enough to lease her current, much better gallery.
A nervous Annie arrives with her painting. Martha expects it to be worthless, but she is stunned by the horse, for he looks just like Royal Eclipse, her mother’s horse. Annie tells her the horse is Lexington, who is actually an ancestor of Royal Eclipse and many other famous horses. The painting is well done, but Martha does not recognize the name of the artist, Scott. Martha assures Annie that the painting is definitely worth something.
