A Trail Through Time (The Chronicles of St Mary's) by Jodi Taylor Page A
Authors: Jodi Taylor
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him down again. Apparently, horses can’t go downstairs.’
‘I can’t remember why they did it.’
‘They’d heard that Caligula slept with his horse and wanted to give it a try.’
‘And Dr Bairstow turned up and told them to call the vet and tell him to be sure to bring his humane killer.’
‘And no one knew whether it was for the horse or for them.’
I laughed. ‘And there was a huge argument over whether Caligula did actually sleep with his horse or his sister. Or whether that was Nero. Or Catherine the Great. And everyone was so busy shouting that they never noticed Turk wander off and they eventually caught up with him outside the kitchens, where Jenny Fields was giving him apples and Mrs Mack had made a halter out of tea towels.’
‘So,’ he said, ‘can horses can walk downstairs?’
‘No one saw him do it so we still don’t know. It’s very possible he took himself down in the heavy goods lift.’
We both smiled at the memory.
‘Do you remember when John Calvin called you the devil’s strumpet and tried to have you run out of town?’
‘No,’ I said, regretfully, ‘that didn’t happen to me, but Isaac Newton did once try to have me indicted for stealing his mirror. And it was my bloody mirror in the first place. Do you remember Professor Rapson assembling a Roman tortoise and they all fell into the lake?’
He laughed. ‘We didn’t have that, but I do remember his efforts to invent his own embalming fluid – he never said why and no one dared ask – and he had about twenty sheep’s heads hanging from the trees like wind chimes. The gardens looked like something from a Tim Burton movie. Every dog in the neighbourhood was going demented trying to climb the trees to get to them.’
‘Do you remember Alexandria?’
‘Yes. And Mary Stuart?’
‘Yes.’
Silence. I can’t remember which of us said it.
‘Do you remember Troy?’
I looked down at my hands. We should talk about Troy and Helios. We must talk about Troy and Helios. But what to say? I didn’t want to lie to him, but no matter how much I tried to avoid it, I wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that when the other Leon died, we were not together.
He said nothing, just sitting in the dark, waiting for me to speak.
In the end, I said, ‘At Troy – just as we were pulling out, Leon wanted to take a young boy with us. Helios. To take him to a place of safety. I refused. I made him take Helios back outside and leave him to face whatever would happen to him there.’
In my mind, I saw it all again. Helios, terrified, clamped to Leon, and refusing to let go. Leon, his blue eyes bright with desperation for Helios and then cold with contempt for me. A silent pod. Just the sound of his heavy breathing. I pulled a gun on him and I would have used it. He went ahead and saved Helios anyway. Behind my back. We never spoke again. Then he died.
It tumbled out in a rush of badly chosen words and jerky sentences and when I had finished, I shut up because I was afraid of what would come next. There was no good way out of this. Would he condemn my actions? I would understand if he did because I condemned my actions. Or would he tell me the same thing had happened in this world and once again, I would have to make a choice about what to do. What to say.
I tried to take a breath, but it came out as a deep, shuddering sigh. ‘I went to see Helios. Joe Nelson, I should say. I told him I’d made a mistake. I apologised. It was little enough, but it was all I could do.’
He nodded and then said, ‘What would you say if I told you I’d done the same thing here? That I had lifted Helios out of Troy and taken him to safety. That I’d done the same as your Leon. What would you say?’
There is a time in everyone’s life when they wish either they had or hadn’t said something. Very few people get a second chance. A chance to unsay the wrong words and replace them with the right ones. The words they should have said.
‘I would
‘I can’t remember why they did it.’
‘They’d heard that Caligula slept with his horse and wanted to give it a try.’
‘And Dr Bairstow turned up and told them to call the vet and tell him to be sure to bring his humane killer.’
‘And no one knew whether it was for the horse or for them.’
I laughed. ‘And there was a huge argument over whether Caligula did actually sleep with his horse or his sister. Or whether that was Nero. Or Catherine the Great. And everyone was so busy shouting that they never noticed Turk wander off and they eventually caught up with him outside the kitchens, where Jenny Fields was giving him apples and Mrs Mack had made a halter out of tea towels.’
‘So,’ he said, ‘can horses can walk downstairs?’
‘No one saw him do it so we still don’t know. It’s very possible he took himself down in the heavy goods lift.’
We both smiled at the memory.
‘Do you remember when John Calvin called you the devil’s strumpet and tried to have you run out of town?’
‘No,’ I said, regretfully, ‘that didn’t happen to me, but Isaac Newton did once try to have me indicted for stealing his mirror. And it was my bloody mirror in the first place. Do you remember Professor Rapson assembling a Roman tortoise and they all fell into the lake?’
He laughed. ‘We didn’t have that, but I do remember his efforts to invent his own embalming fluid – he never said why and no one dared ask – and he had about twenty sheep’s heads hanging from the trees like wind chimes. The gardens looked like something from a Tim Burton movie. Every dog in the neighbourhood was going demented trying to climb the trees to get to them.’
‘Do you remember Alexandria?’
‘Yes. And Mary Stuart?’
‘Yes.’
Silence. I can’t remember which of us said it.
‘Do you remember Troy?’
I looked down at my hands. We should talk about Troy and Helios. We must talk about Troy and Helios. But what to say? I didn’t want to lie to him, but no matter how much I tried to avoid it, I wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that when the other Leon died, we were not together.
He said nothing, just sitting in the dark, waiting for me to speak.
In the end, I said, ‘At Troy – just as we were pulling out, Leon wanted to take a young boy with us. Helios. To take him to a place of safety. I refused. I made him take Helios back outside and leave him to face whatever would happen to him there.’
In my mind, I saw it all again. Helios, terrified, clamped to Leon, and refusing to let go. Leon, his blue eyes bright with desperation for Helios and then cold with contempt for me. A silent pod. Just the sound of his heavy breathing. I pulled a gun on him and I would have used it. He went ahead and saved Helios anyway. Behind my back. We never spoke again. Then he died.
It tumbled out in a rush of badly chosen words and jerky sentences and when I had finished, I shut up because I was afraid of what would come next. There was no good way out of this. Would he condemn my actions? I would understand if he did because I condemned my actions. Or would he tell me the same thing had happened in this world and once again, I would have to make a choice about what to do. What to say.
I tried to take a breath, but it came out as a deep, shuddering sigh. ‘I went to see Helios. Joe Nelson, I should say. I told him I’d made a mistake. I apologised. It was little enough, but it was all I could do.’
He nodded and then said, ‘What would you say if I told you I’d done the same thing here? That I had lifted Helios out of Troy and taken him to safety. That I’d done the same as your Leon. What would you say?’
There is a time in everyone’s life when they wish either they had or hadn’t said something. Very few people get a second chance. A chance to unsay the wrong words and replace them with the right ones. The words they should have said.
‘I would
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