Free An Ever Fixéd Mark by Jessie Olson Page A

empathetically.
    “Tell Jonathan he should get some better
shades for that room,” Gerard advised as Dr. Chiang returned to the
conversation.
    “I will,” Lizzie assented, even though she
seldom had reason to speak with the curator never mind the
authority to tell him how to maintain the property.
    “Gerard, I apologize for that,” Dr. Chiang
interrupted.
    “That’s all right. Leslie is very kind.”
    “Yes, Lizzie is very helpful,” Dr. Chiang
smiled once more before leading him into Richard’s office.
    Lizzie laughed to herself and returned to
her computer as Richard closed the door. She sat back at her
computer, with no added tasks from her idling before. She clicked
over to Google and typed in Charlotte Fulton. She saw a genealogy
page that confirmed she was married to Horace Fulton, son of John
and his first wife, Caroline. There was a link to an art
collection, tracing the original purchase back to a Charlotte
Fulton in 1858. Lizzie wasn’t sure if it was the same Charlotte
Fulton. Perhaps. But… not much else. She clicked on the image
option – just in case there was some random portrait out there.
There were a lot of modern photos of Charlottes and Fultons… but no
Charlotte Fulton. On the next page, she found a silent movie star
in a mysterious black and white photo. Lizzie clicked on that
picture and found a profile. That Charlotte Fulton appeared in a
number of films in the 20’s of which Lizzie had never heard. Well…
she had some more information, but nothing interesting or in depth
enough for a good story on her tour. All she could say, really, was
that Harriet wrote A letter ONCE to her sister in law. Not really
that exciting.
    Lizzie remembered there was another name in
the letter. Mr. Chester. She typed in Charlotte Fulton Chester in
the search icon. Another genealogy page showed up. There were too
many words and too many names for Lizzie to understand how they all
connected to one another. She scrolled down to find Charlotte
Fulton or Chester. Her eyes froze on the sight of Benjamin Chester.
Her heart skipped as her cheeks flushed immediately. So much for
distracting herself from those thoughts.
    She clicked out of Google and back to
Facebook. A red notification popped up to say she was tagged in a
few photos someone finally put from the reunion. She was in three
of them. There was one with Sara. One with Dan and Delany Stewart.
And one with Ben. She lingered on that image and let herself be
mesmerized by the happiness of the gray green eyes. She liked how
she looked in that picture. The multiple glasses of wine didn’t
show. She looked… happy. Like he did. They looked like… a
couple.
    She habitually clicked to see who else was
logged on. She saw Ben’s name. Was he looking at the picture of
them together and thinking… what might he be thinking? Lizzie went
back to the picture and selected the link to his profile from his
tag. It looked as though he caught up with his negligence of
Facebook within the past ten minutes. He was friends with ten new
people… including Delany Stewart. There wasn’t much else. Nothing
to show what he was thinking. She looked over to his profile and
saw the same succinct explanations for his place of employment and
education. He hadn’t revealed his interests, activities, music, or
films. She went back to the picture of them together and saw he
removed the tag identifying himself.
    Lizzie’s heart sank. It was so silly and so
relatively minor. But… why didn’t he want the Facebook world to see
him partnered with her? Did they look too much like a couple? Did
he not want anyone in particular to see that and get the wrong
impression? A girlfriend he already had? Or… God forbid… a
wife?
    She shut her eyes and took in a deep breath
as the door to Richard’s office opened. Dr. Chiang hastened back to
the desk to make another phone call. Richard escorted Gerard to his
coat and thanked him for his time. Gerard Fulton nodded to Lizzie,
muttering