Elizabeth was soon following her mother towards the Governor’s Palace. The time-traveling girl was getting nervous that she was going to mess up her piece. Technically she had never been trained on the harpsichord. On the other hand, being nervous will help her. That nervousness allows her to pull from the real Elizabeth’s memory, somehow. She never did understand how that worked, but then again she never understands how they were switching places.

Inside the Palace, Elizabeth hung around with the other young musicians while she was waiting for her turn to perform. Once two boys did their pieces on various instruments, a guy said, “Lady Elizabeth Madison performing a selection from The Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach on the harpsichord.”

That was the young girl’s cue to seat herself at the harpsichord. Before she did sit down, she curtsied towards the audience. She didn’t have to force herself to be nervous to draw from the real Elizabeth’s memory. Her stage flight was doing just wonderful on that front. Almost as if someone else was moving her hands, she did the piece fully and beautifully without error.

After she was done, she did another curtsey and retreated to where the other kids were hanging around.

The next morning, Elizabeth couldn’t remember going to bed. She must have gone to bed somehow because there she was with the bed-curtains drawn. She sat up in bed when she heard a noise. Thankfully the noise was Lucy coming in her room to get her dressed for the day.

About fifteen to twenty minutes later she was dressed in her lavender outfit without the pinner apron. She headed to the outdoor kitchen to see Ruth about some breakfast.

A hard-boiled egg and toast later she was watching Ruth work. Lucy walked into the kitchen, and told her, “We have to go to your minuet dance lessons, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth stood up and followed her servant around the house to head down the road. They walked maybe a block before turning onto a walk. Going up to the door, Lucy knocked on it.

Another servant answered it, and addressed the young girl, “Good morning, Lady Madison, please come in.”

“Lady Elizabeth, I will be busy with Lady Abigail when you get done. Please come promptly home on your own.” Lucy told the young girl as she went into the house.

Elizabeth found four girls and five boys waiting in a room with all the furniture pushed to the edges. She made small talk to the other kids while they waited for the instructor.

“Gentlemen and Ladies, we will get started now,” a lady said coming into the room from the door. She continued, “Gentlemen, if you will pick a partner please, so we can get started.”

A handsome looking boy didn’t need a second command, he was at Elizabeth’s side in a heartbeat. He wasn’t the only boy to start towards the young girl. Just the fastest.

The instructor continued, “Excellent, let's start with the minuet from last week. Lord Anderson and Lady Madison if you will start.”

Elizabeth was a bed of nerves again, but then again that helped her as the past times. She felt her body slowly walking across the room. She moved her feet in fancy steps while she was dipping down here, standing on her tippy toes there. She kicked her feet to her sides occasionally, always in step with her partner.

“Perfect, Lord Anderson, Lady Madison. Next couple please.” The instructor continued.

Lord Anderson, whose name of Richard had been confirmed in of her nervous times, came up to her. “Are you waiting for Lucy, Elizabeth?” He asked.

Elizabeth answered her friend, “Lucy is busy with my mother this morning. I am to walk home alone, Richard.”

“That will never do, I will escort you home, ‘Lizabeth,” Richard answered.

As they were walking the few blocks home, she looked her companion over carefully. She could see why she would end up marrying him, nine years in the future. He wasn’t bad looking, and he made her dry at the mouth. Even now only being ten, she was crushing on him bad. He was upper class in this class society with that lord title, but then again so was she.

Once they got to her house, he escorted her to the front door. Once Elizabeth was inside the house, he went his own way. She didn’t know where he was heading but she assumed to his own house. She found the house empty. Wherever her parents were, Lucy and Joseph must be with them. She decided to head to the kitchen to check in with Ruth and get some lunch.

A small lunch later, Elizabeth decided it was time to switch with her fellow time traveler. It must be past noon, so the church would be done in the twenty-first century. With the house being empty and Ruth busy cooking dinner, she just slowly went to the window. She wasn’t afraid of being discovered today. After heaving herself … himself through the window he headed to his home.

In his bedroom, he found his homework sitting on his desk, with a note on top of it. The note said,

“Dear EAM - I did the research yesterday, found out a lot of information about you. It was quite interesting. All my discoveries are jotted down in the notebook. Pay especially attention to the information about the will, it bears further investigation. If my math is correct you might have left a surprise for myself in the will. It might not be anything, though. -- PDL

PS: I prefer modern church services, to the colonial church services. Short and sweet, does not drag on.”

Paul did agree with them about the church services, that five-hour service was torture. He was puzzling trying to figure out what they meant by the will information. Setting the note aside he found the written conversation underneath it. Underneath his “Who controls this? - EAM” question, was the reply of, “You do! - PDL”

He wanted to keep the conversation going, but he needed to do it another day. He wanted to do it with a quill in Elizabeth’s bedroom. That gave him at least overnight to come up with what to write down. He also set that aside, and then opened up the notebook.

He found out that the other Paul had found Richard’s and Elizabeth’s gravestone on the eastside of where the colonial church was. It noted that Elizabeth was born in 1763, just like he expected her to be, but she died in 1858. Richard was also born in 1763, but he died in 1832, well before his beloved bride.

Also jotted down, was the fact they had four kids, two boys, Paul and Daniel, and two girls, Emily and Abigail. Abigail was named after her grandmother, but Emily was named after Paul’s mother. She died in her childhood home from old age.

Paperclipped to the notebook was a print out of a 1958 newspaper article talking about her weird will. This will allow her family to live in the colonial house, but she retained ownership of it, even after death. The house, an account, and a large locked box will be inherited by the first Lockhart born in the town on a future date. That date was 175 years after the will was enacted in 1833, or 2008. The story went on to say, that the children had contested it in 1860, but lost the court case. The documents of the court case point out there were no Lockhart living in the town at that time. The newspaper article goes on to point out in 1958 there were also no Lockharts living in the town at that time.

Paul racked his brain, he couldn’t think of any other Lockhart’s in town that would qualify for that clause. Other than himself, and Elizabeth meant it for him anyway. Now he just had to figure out how to claim the colonial house, and other items she meant for him to inherit.

Author's Note:Book Two has not been written yet. For that matter, I haven't had a chance to write since early summer, I have become extremely busy with work. I hope to eventually find time to write. Comments and questions are always welcomed -- Thanks Becky