Thursday in class, the teacher gave his students a research project. He told his students, “You can research a famous person, an ancestor, or a person from our town. One rule is that whoever you choose cannot be living. I would be interested to hear why, but the main scope is the research. For all I care, you can research the name on the first grave marker you find.” After handing out papers on the project, he continued on other school subjects.

Paul thought to himself and said, “My chance to find out more about Elizabeth.” He then turned his attention back to the teacher,

After school, he dropped his backpack off, after grabbing a notebook and pen out of it. He decided to check the paper that he and Elizabeth were having a conversation on, before finding the graveyard of the church he visited yesterday as Elizabeth.

Grabbing the notepad, he wrote, “P, I will only be fifteen to twenty minutes, I am checking the note. — E.” After tearing the sheet off, he set it next to the window with the pen in case the other one needed it.

Pushing the window up, he quickly climbed in. He … she … wasn’t as graceful as yesterday. Dusting her lavender pinner off, she quickly went out of the room, ignoring the window.

At the foot of the steps, Elizabeth noticed that Lucy was setting the table in the dining room. Running up the steps rewarded her with, “Dreadful child, walk! It isn’t ladylike to run,” from the dining room.

After slowing down to a fast walk, she entered her bedroom to find the linens stripped from the bed. With a bit of nerves, she searched the room, since under the pillow wasn’t an option right now. She realized that meant under the pillow was never a good option.

She found it hidden under her doll folded up. Undoing the folds rewarded her with another message, “I am here — EAM” in response to the last one.

Taking the quill and supplies out, she set to work writing her next question to her link friend. She carefully, so not to spill anything, wrote, “Who controls this? — EAM.”

After putting everything away, including the note, she carefully walked down the stairs to the portal window. Sticking her head out of the window, she … he was rewarded with the twenty-first century.

Looking at the time Paul saw that he had done it in twelve minutes, it was currently three forty-five. Turning to close the window, he was shocked to see a note was left for him on the paper.

“Elizabeth! You have to watch your timing. Master Clarke visits at about four on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You are cutting it awfully close! — Paul,” the note exclaimed at him. After closing the window, he folded up the note and stuck it in his pocket.

He walked around to the front and tried to retrace his steps to church yesterday. It wasn’t exactly easy. The modern road layout wasn’t the same as the colonial one. After a few missteps, he found the graveyard, but it appeared the church was long gone.

Walking around looking at the stones he was trying to find any ones with the last name of Madison, first name of Elizabeth, or birth year of 1763. He had been wandering around for about twenty minutes when a groundskeeper stopped him, asking what he was doing there.

He explained, “I am trying to find the gravestone of a lady born as Elizabeth Madison in 1763, it is for a class project.”

“I don’t know about an Elizabeth, but there are Madisons over here,” the grounds guy answered. He continued as they walked to another area, “she is probably buried under her married name.”

They stopped in front of a gravestone that said, “Frederick J Madison, 1743-1780.” Looking around, he thought back to yesterday, if you could call it that. The church would be just to the east of this gravesite. The graves where the church was, appeared to be more modern.

Looking back at the gravestone, Paul got a lump in his throat. That meant that Elizabeth lost her father when she was seventeen, probably due to the war. The next stone over was Elizabeth’s Mother, she was born in 1744, and died in 1810. There was another gravestone nearby that looked promising, it had the correct first and last name, but it was “Elizabeth V Madison, 1701-1772” which Paul could only surmise was Elizabeth’s grandma.

He looked left and right and came up empty-handed. He decided this wasn’t working, and decided to head to the archives in the library, which the project’s handout suggested.

Once in the library, he went to the counter and asked the lady the same information he had asked the groundskeeper. This rewarded him with, “any information about her is going to be in her name after she got married, only information about her before that is going to be census which would just confirm her existence.”

Going to the back, the lady returned with a few old books on a cart, and two pairs of cotton gloves. “These are a record of all births, marriages, deaths recorded in the old church on Duke Street, from 1775 to 1785.”

“Her father died in 1780 according to the gravestone I found,” Paul said.

The lady smiled and said, “Great, let’s find his, and see if she is listed on it.”

After much searching, they found Fred's death record, which did list Elizabeth and Abigail as witnesses. Just as Paul surmised, Fred cause of death was listed as ‘old war wound, infected,’ but most interesting to him was his occupations: Lawyer, Plantain Owner, Landlord, and Veteran.

They just slowly flipped through the pages; there was no rhyme to the records. One page would record a birth, the next might be a marriage, another birth, then a death. When it was getting close to the time for Paul to head home, they struck gold. The marriage certificate of Elizabeth Madison, 1763 and Richard Anderson 1762, in St. John’s church in 1781.”

“Elizabeth Anne Anderson!” Paul exclaimed beaming with a huge smile.

The lady looked at him, smiling and said: “Elizabeth Anderson, why does that name sound familiar?”

Looking at the time, Paul said softly and sadly, “I need to get home. I will have to continue tomorrow.” With that done, he headed home. But not before he wrote in his notebook, what he did know about Elizabeth and her parents.

Friday after dropping his bag off after school, Paul quickly headed to the mysterious window. By now he wasn’t afraid of being seen on this side of the window, it was the other side of the window that scared him. He set the note to other Paul he had previously written next to the window. The note told how long he planned on staying. He included his research homework, if and only if the other one wanted to do it. He thought to himself, “I was yelled at to watch my timing, yesterday. Today should be Tuesday on the other side. Here goes nothing.”

He jumped in the window, falling on a thump on the other side in her white and blue printed flowers gown. After dusting herself off, Elizabeth left the window up, since the rest of the windows were up. She was headed upstairs to get her sampler and check for the note when Lucy stopped her.

The servant said, “There you are Elizabeth, Grace is expecting us for a final fitting. Here is your hat; let’s go.”

Without a word, Elizabeth put her hat on and followed Lucy out of the house. This time she tried to memorize the route for later, it might be interesting as Paul. Soon they were at the Mantua shop, and Lucy greeted Grace by saying, “Lady Elizabeth here, Grace.”

“Excellent, Lady Madison, let's work on removing that gown so we can do a fitting of your gown,” Grace spoke.

Lucy explained, “I am going to the wig maker, I should be back in thirty to sixty, Grace.”

After confirming that was ok, and telling Elizabeth that she was only checking the gown, not the underskirt, Grace went and removed the pins holding the girl’s gown closed, after leading her to the back room.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was removing her hat. Before the girl could blink she was down to her stays on her top, the Mantua Maker had even removed her mop cap. Soon she was putting her arms in the silk gown, which was loosely pinned together. Soon Grace was working on pinning the stomacher on, before tightening up the closure of the gown.

Grace had her step down from the box she was standing on, before putting a silk mop cap on her head, complete with a matching green bow on the front of it.

After instructing the young girl to slowly spin, Grace went and played with the outfit, here and there. Elizabeth liked the look of this outfit but thought it looked weird with the blue skirt showing in the front. The best thing about the gown, Elizabeth thought was the feel of the fabric. Since the three of them thought the fit was good, they all went to the front to wait for Lucy to return, to give her approval.

Elizabeth spent the next fifteen minutes watching the Mantuas work on another project. It appeared to her that Felicity was sewing a young girl’s stays, maybe a toddler's. Grace was making a padded hat; she had called it a pudding cap when she was talking to Felicity.

On the other side of the store was some fancy hats, and the supplies to make them. Thinking back to her … his … education, she remembered learning about apprenticeship, and she thought if she had to apprentice this would be where she would want to do it. She wondered if her class of girls actually did apprenticeships though.

Elizabeth was slowly kicking her legs, on the stool watching them work when Lucy walked in. After greeting the two workers, the servant went straight for the young lass and had her stand up and do another slow spin. “You outdid yourself, Grace, I am not sure I am picking up the right girl. For a right mischief-maker, you clean up good, Lady Elizabeth.” The young girl could only blush at her compliment or put down; she couldn’t tell which one it was. Lucy continued, “Either we need to get you out of your new silks, or we need to change the skirt so you can leave that on.”

Elizabeth excitedly exclaimed, “Can I leave it on, Lucy.”

“You can, but you don’t want to ruin it for tomorrow.” The servant answered her.

Felicity set to work helping the young girl step out of one skirt, after it was untied, and step into the matching skirt. After it was securely tied, Felicity handed Elizabeth her hat.

Soon the young lady and her servant were headed home. Again Elizabeth was trying to memorize the route, and trying to place it in the modern grid mentally. She decided to worry about it when she returned to the future.

Walking in the house, she headed upstairs to do what she set out to do before the impromptu trip to pick up the gown. She had only gone a few steps before being called into the front room. Her mother requested that she slowly turn around to show the gown off. After requesting who picked the color, Abigail praised her daughter for the color choice. Once she was excused, she slowly went upstairs to pick up her sampler and doll. Before going back downstairs, she looked for the note and came up empty.

She thought to herself, “Paul has it.” She then headed downstairs to occupy herself in the front room until dinner time. In about an hour, the three Madisons were called to the dining room for another three-course meal. After an apple pie dessert, the small family retreated to the front room for more downtime, leaving the mess for the servants.

After the sun got low in the sky, Lucy walked into the room and said: “Lady Elizabeth, it is time for bed.”

Elizabeth followed her servant upstairs, taking her doll and sampler with her. Once in the bedroom, Lucy took charge and started to undress Elizabeth from her silk gown. Soon the young girl was down to her shift and stays. She also still had her stockings and shoes on. She handed her pockets to the servant before turning to face Lucy.

Soon Lucy was unlacing the young lady’s stays, Elizabeth thought it felt weird to have nothing on her chest. She had got used to the tightness on her chest so quickly. After she sat down on her bed, she removed her own shoes and stockings. The servant was soon closing the young girl’s bed curtains after she laid in bed.