Pickles And Honey: Ruby's Song

Why did Alexander Hamilton die? This is the question in the background of the family of Eliza Bowen, or Madame Jumel. Written by her great-great-nephew, the novel uses the family book, kept private by the family for over a century, as the basis for the story. Eliza was a beautiful, subtlety flamboyant young woman with an acumen for business when she met the older Hamilton and secretly helped him with his personal finances. Madame Jumel passed away in the latter part of the 19th Century as one of the wealthiest women in American leading to a 20 year court case over her estate and leaving secrets unanswered until this novel. She had also become the model for Mr. Dickens' Miss Havisham in Great Expectations. The story opens with a Model T traveling up a dirt road in Vermont with the occupants in search of the perfect vista. It is 1909 and the driver is Harold Lockwood, the most famous movie star of his day. Along with Harold are two of the Jones girls, descendants of Madame Jumel. A connection between the occupants of the car and their historical past becomes solidified through the memory of one little girl by the name of Ruby. As the family grows over the next 50 years they discover, through a connection with Ruby, events that had been kept as secrets in the past. The revelation of these events then become the hope for the future. What was the true story of Hamilton's duel with Aaron Burr and what was Hamilton's connection to Madame of the Heights, or their ancestor Madame Jumel, who would marry Aaron Burr in later years only to quickly divorce him publicly with the help of Alexander Hamilton, Jr.? She would file for this divorce on July 11, the date of the Hamilton/Burr duel.