3

Trust me, chariots really aren’t a comfortable way to travel. The men and the boy stood at the front, while Tilly and I sat behind them, clinging on to the sides. At every bump in the road, I felt like we were both going to be flung out. (Which would have been fine except I’m fairly sure the men would have just picked us up and flung us straight back in again.)

I tried to figure out where and when we might be, but the constant bumping of the chariot made it impossible to think properly.

‘Is Saturn still following us?’ I asked, as soon as I dared to open my mouth.

‘I haven’t seen him for a while.’

I’d been afraid she was going to say that. At first, we’d seen Saturn trotting along the side of the road behind us, but he couldn’t run very fast and he’d quickly fallen far behind.

‘He’s probably at home, trying to explain to my parents that he’s managed to lose us forever,’ I said.

‘Don’t say that,’ Tilly replied, putting her arm round me. ‘I bet he’s hiding somewhere, waiting for an opportunity to rescue us.’

I huddled close to her and tried to believe that she was right.

In front, the two men were talking to each other.

‘What language are they speaking?’ asked Tilly.

‘I don’t know. All I know for sure is that it’s not English and it’s not French.’

‘And it’s not Spanish, because I’d recognize that after my holiday there last year.’

Then one of the men shook his fist at us and the other one reached for his sword, and Tilly and I figured it was time for us to be quiet.

After ages, we passed a few stone houses. The boy pulled hard on the reins and the chariot slowed down and then stopped completely. As soon as the bumpy motion ceased, I felt sick and dizzy.

I looked at Tilly and saw that she was pale and scared-looking. I held her hand and tried to look brave.

One of the men shouted something and a woman came out of a house.

‘That woman looks kind of familiar,’ I said to Tilly. ‘Maybe Saturn has brought us to meet some of my ancestors.’

Tilly shook her head. ‘I doubt if that woman is your ancestor. She just looks familiar because there’s a picture of a woman exactly like her in our history book.’

‘In which chapter?’ I asked, half afraid of the answer.

‘In the chapter on –’

‘– Ancient Rome,’ I suddenly remembered and finished the sentence for her.

At last, the chariot and the clothes the men were wearing started to make sense.

‘So the men are speaking Latin,’ said Tilly. ‘That’s why it sounded so strange.’

‘Saturn has brought us to Ancient Rome,’ I whispered. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘I can’t believe it either – but it’s true … isn’t it?’

I nodded slowly. ‘It looks like it.’

The last time I’d time-travelled, I’d stayed in the same country, and had gone back less than a hundred years. Now I was far, far away from home – and even with Tilly beside me, it was totally scary. Suddenly I wished that I was safe with my family, with nothing more serious than a history project to worry about.

The men said something to the woman and she went back into the house. When she came back a minute later she was carrying a large bowl of water. She handed the bowl to the men, who took turns to drink.

As I watched, I forgot all about being scared. I forgot all about Ancient Rome and chariots and scary, glinting swords. My mouth felt drier than it ever had before. I felt like my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. Beside me, Tilly was trying to moisten her dry and cracked lips. One man passed the bowl towards the boy, laughing as some of the precious water sloshed over the edge. As the boy held it to his lips, he looked up and his huge dark brown eyes met mine. Without taking any water, he passed the bowl to me. I drank greedily and quickly passed the bowl to Tilly. She drank all but the last few drops, which she passed back to the boy.

‘Sorry,’ she said, as he drank. ‘You see we haven’t had a drop of water for thousands of years.’

The boy smiled at her, almost like he could understand. Then the woman took her bowl back and we continued our journey.