A Second Chance (The Chronicles of St Mary's #3)

by Jodi Taylor

I tried – and failed – to imagine Dr Bairstow chuckling. Sometimes when he was pleased, he did display the satisfaction of an elderly vulture unexpectedly encountering a dead donkey. But chuckling …

I looked up at the statue. Henry VIII clutched his sceptre. At some point in History, students

would substitute a chair leg. The current whereabouts of the sceptre are unknown.

Queens, for instance, founded by the Lancastrian queen, Margaret of Anjou, whose sharp tongue and high-level paranoia were two of the reasons for the Wars of the Roses.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

‘As Joan of Arc probably said: “Build a girl a fire and she’s warm for a few minutes. Set a girl on fire and she’s warm for the rest of her life.”’

‘Joan of Arc should have known better than to misquote Terry Pratchett. The great man might not like it. But are you sure you’re not an historian?’

The city of Troy existed for a good long time before the war and for a good long time afterwards.

It was a power struggle. We would see this again with Rome and Carthage.

In the Iliad, the Trojans speak Homeric Greek. In reality, they spoke Luwian, which is similar to Lycian and closely related to Hittite.

while the Greeks have a more or less common language, sometimes the Trojan allies have difficulty understanding each other.

In my experience, the only time women get to go first is when walking through a minefield.

This was the Bronze Age. There would be no papers for us to show.

Troy was famous for its horses. Hence the Wooden Horse of Troy.

Trojan wine, Greek wine, all wine from that era, was ghastly. Seriously awful, tasting of liquorice and sulphur. Invented a couple of millennia before battery acid was required, they called it wine and drank it instead. Strong enough to strip paint, it was always served with water,

Mixing wine had evolved into a ceremony. In the Iliad, Achilles, receiving the Greek delegation of Odysseus, Phoenix, and Big Ajax, did them the honour of mixing the wine with his own hands.

In an age where women wore their wealth in public, she was festooned with gold.

‘Toxic honey. Made by bees using pollen from rhododendrons growing by the Black Sea. Causes disorientation, uncoordinated movements, nausea, and hallucinations. Both Pompey and Xenophon’s armies were infected with the stuff and were defeated. Not fatal. Wears off in a couple of hours. You’ll get a bit giggly. And high. High as a kite, actually.

The Greeks, trapped on their narrow beach and with their backs to the sea, were becoming desperate.

Up on the Scaean Gate, Paris lowered his bow, spat over the walls, and walked slowly away.

The Greeks had gone and standing on the beach should be one of the most widely recognised objects in all the world. In all of History.

The Siege of Troy was over.

Beloved of Kleio. Weep for your dreams For today they die. Your heart will grow cold. And as the leaves fall The golden-eyed girl Will leave this world. Never to return.’ As she says the last words, her hands slide away and she is no longer under the protection of the goddess.

All

gods are the same. They’re big on the worshipping and the ceremonies and the imposing buildings, but when you really need them – they’re never there.

We’re not allowed to kill people. It’s never a good idea to start decimating your ancestors.

DNA evidence is quite clear. There was only ever one successful migration out of Africa and every one of us – every single person outside of Africa – is descended from one of the people who made that one crossing. Estimates put the number at around two hundred to two hundred and fifty people. That’s how closely we’re all related. Something we should remember sometimes.

They had an official food taster. I’d heard of this. Encountering new plants and fruits every day, one member of the tribe took it upon herself (or himself) to taste leaves, seeds, berries, unknown fish, or animals, while everyone else watched to see if it was safe.

‘CBBC? What the hell is CBBC?’ ‘Concussed By Bloody Cheese.’

We settled eventually on between thirty and forty thousand French troops. Which made the English, playing away, outnumbered by about four to one.