Saturday morning we were up bright and early. Although we had chatted in bed for a long time, we woke up refreshed and got ourselves ready to meet the film crew from Anglia East at Grimes Graves*. I let Josie go first as I knew that the makeup people would be tidying up my face and hair before the start of the tour and searched through my wardrobe for something smart but casual, ending up with a crisp white sleeveless blouse, black capri pants and leather slip on flats which would be ideal for the rough terrain at the site, Josie just went through her normal routine in her new’ wild-child’ image as her and the rest of the group would appear as just another crowd of visitors and would not need any special presentation.

After a quick light breakfast we went over to Maggie’s to join the others to make our way through the quiet country roads over to Lynford.

“Right girls, rather than just walking the site and discussing things in front of camera, let me take you through it all first, walk the site and go down into the mine, and you can have a think about any questions or comments you may have for when we do the filming. Meanwhile the TV crew can take a few shots of the site and decide where they would like us positioned and where we should stop to have a discussion.”, I introduced them to the historic moonscape with all its bumps and hollows.

After about an hour when the crew had sorted out all the locations they wanted to film us at, and after I had been tidied up by the makeup girl we started the tour.

“Today, we are at the Neolithic site at Grime’s Graves at Lynford. The site had been totally misunderstood through the centuries, and associated with many myths and legends, but it was only relatively recently that the truth about the site was finally clarified. All the hillocks and hollows are not graves, as the name would suggest, but are actually the remains of mine shafts to get down to the black flint beds below the surface to dig out material for making all sorts of cutting tools in the Stone Age. Later we can go down one of the mine shafts, only about 40. feet down, to see how they dug down and created a cavern from which they dug tunnels and niches outwards into the flint beds.”

In many ways it was not as exotic a venue as the Seahenge visit, but the women, wound up with the excitement of being filmed, really threw themselves into it all and came across as enthusiastic and wanting to know more about the people who had created this.

After we eventually completed the filming to the satisfaction of Jim, the director, he took us and his crew for lunch at a nearby country pub and talked the girls through what would happen next.

“For a bunch of amateurs you all did brilliantly, you all looked very interested in what Jo was telling you and asked a lot of sensible questions. You came across naturally as a bunch of friends on a day out. I want you to do exactly the same on the next filming session, which will be at Castle Acre Priory **. I have to go back now to sort out all the editing, so I will leave you to enjoy the rest of your day here. The programme will not be going out until later in the year as one of a series of six, shown weekly, but when we have this shoot all cleaned up I will forward to Jo a link of the preview, so you don’t have to wait that long to see how you all performed. Thanks for coming, I’ll see you all again in a couple of weeks.”

We all stayed there for a while longer, the girls were still excited at being involved and wanted to talk all about it.

Eventually we made our way back home, and after the excitement of the awards ceremony and the filming session I was ready just to relax and be a couch potato for the rest of the weekend. However this was rudely interrupted by a call from Jacqui early on Sunday morning.

“Sorry to spoil your weekend Jo, but you need to get up to Ostia as soon as you can, there has been an exciting discovery, the TV cameras are on their way and we need you for an interview.

“What’s the excitement about, it’s all just routine archeological mundane digging at the moment, we are not down to the really interesting layers yet?”

“I’ll tell you all about it when you get here, but basically a burial chamber has been uncovered and from the artefacts in the grave site it is somebody important.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Josie, get yourself ready to go onto site and look decent, you could well be on camera again. I’ll tell you all about it on the way there.”

“Right Jacqui tell me more about what has been found and why the TV people are here.”

“As I told you on the phone, a burial chamber has been unearthed. They have still not opened the sarcophagus, but from the high-value of the relics surrounding it and the carvings on its lid it would appear to be that of a very high ranking female. The inscriptions need to be properly exposed and translated but they have already read something to the effect of ‘Abs..ndita est a mu..o, rebe..l.o d..ta est’ .which if we have guessed the missing letters correctly is something like ‘hidden from the world, the rebellion is over.’ when translated from the Latin. There is a remote possibility that we have found the remains of Boudicca* or one of her daughters Heanua and Lannosea. After the rebellion was crushed there is no record of what happened to any of them, but at other sites across the Roman empire there are examples of rebel leaders being buried under Roman settlements so as to not allow access a rallying point for their supporters.”

“If I have to give a TV interview, how much of that is pure speculation and how much can I say?”

“Keep it to the basic facts, just say that the research is ongoing but that it looks like it is a high-ranking female from the Roman era.”

I left Josie to gather information for my vlog while I briefed Jim and the rest of the Anglia East team on what had been found, and what they could film. After a quick professional makeover by the TV team I was soon standing next to the burial site, talking to Professor Carter, discussing the discovery while the cameras followed us as we walked around. As I had previously been told, whilst he was in his element standing in front of a crowd in his university lecture halls, he was shy and reticent in front of the camera, so most of the discussions and commentary were led by me, with some of the explanations as to how the chamber was unearthed being given by Emma and Jane.

“Thanks everyone,” said Jim as his crew packed up, “ It might be a struggle getting it on tonight’s show as we work with a skeleton staff on Sundays, but we’ll at least give it a mention and follow it up tomorrow with a feature. Jo are you free to come in for an interview and discussion?”

I looked over at Jacqui who nodded ok, and told me, “It’s more important that you continue to be the public face of the project, Josie is proving quite competent with recording events and Emma and Jane can do the in front of camera discussions, they are almost as comfortable at it as you are, they should manage today’s vlog post without any problems.“ I promised to be at theTV station early afternoon for a run-through.

There was just a brief news item on the discovery that evening, with a photograph of the site area with Professor Carter and me looking towards the exposed grave, most of the shoot was still being processed for my interview on Monday with many more details.

On Monday the studio interview went well, including film of the activities on site and my explanation of the significance of the find, helped by the enthusiasm that the whole programme crew now had for the project, and I was soon on my way back home to settle down in front of the TV with Josie to see how they had pulled it all together.

“Don’t sit down Jo. When I arrived home Maggie caught me and when I told her about the discovery on site she invited us and the rest of the girls over to all watch the interview together, I didn’t have the heart to say no.”

Reluctantly I agreed to go over to Maggie’s with her, it had been a tiring day. Whilst I enjoyed the company of Maggie and her friends and their enthusiastic support for the project at Ostia and for me, there were times when it was all a bit overwhelming and this was one of those times. However, I put on a brave enthusiastic face and went over. Over coffees and Maggie’s home-made cakes after the interview was aired, I was bombarded with questions, ‘How old was the body.’, ‘What was found in the grave alongside the sarcophagus’, ‘Was there any indication of who it was.’ and lots more in a similar vein. Emma and Jane replied to most of the questions as they were in the team that had actually found the grave, and I was glad to let them take the lead.

Back at home later, I sat down for a chat with Josie.

“This is all getting a bit intense for me, Sis, I need a break. Whilst I am enjoying what I am doing on site, it is taking over my life, even when I come home to relax I’m faced with Maggie and her friends who want to spend ages talking about it . I’m thinking of going over to see Mum and Dad. I know that you are going to spend some time over therefore the wedding, so I’ll go over first to let them get to know the new me. Are you ok to work with Jane and Emma on updating the vlog while I’m away?”

“As long as Jacqui is happy for you to do that, it will be no problem for us. If you take your laptop with you, we can send you drafts of our vlog before we post it online in case we are not following your style, we don’t want to lose the interest of all your followers.”

I agreed everything with Jacqui on the condition that if there were any more significant developments I would front the vlog again, from France.

After agreeing with Mum and dad that the house was in a fit condition for me to visit, the following weekend I arrived at Toulouse airport.I breezed through passport control with a cheery smile and “Bonjour Mam’selle, bienvenue en France, bon séjour.” from the border control officer, who glanced at Josie’s passport and waved me through without any problems. In the Arrivals Hall I saw Dad and walked over to him. “ Oh my God Jo, for a second or two there I thought that Josie had come instead of you, you look amazing, you are now allowed to give your dad a big hug. Let’s get you up to Vayrac, we can chat on the way, it’s a two hour journey by the autoroute, and there’s a lot we need to catch up with.”

By the time we arrived at the house, he was quite accepting of what I was doing and why, and in many ways was treating me as he always had treated Josie. As we arrived, Mum came rushing out to greet me, froze for a moment while she took in how I now looked, but then gave me a huge hug and three-cheek kiss in the French fashion. “Come on let’s get you inside Jo and settled in, your dad can take care of you cases.”

“Now you are here Joey, sorry Jo, away from people that know you, do you want to spend some time as Joey.”

“To be honest Mum, I am now adjusted to living as Jo, and changing back for a couple of weeks will only get me confused, apart from the fact that with this hairstyle and the way I now behave, most people would still see me as a girl. I’ll stay looking like a girl, but otherwise please just treat me as normal.”

Although Josie had told them during her visit with Jack about how I had got into the situation of becoming Jo, and as they had been following the vlog and TV appearances, they knew a lot of the details of Ostia, we spent the first few hours catching up. I wanted to get everything out in the open so that I could put it all to the back of my mind and relax for the rest of my stay.

The next two week was calming and relaxing and I was soon in good spirits again. As it was the first time I had been to the area, Dad and Mam delighted in taking me on the tourist trail, down to the amazing village of Rocamadour** built into the cliffs of the gorge; the underground world of the caves of the Gouffre de Padirac***, the reproduced cave at Lascaux**** with its famous prehistoric artwork; the vibrant street market at Martel; and an enjoyable day canoeing on the river Dordogne.

It wasn’t all play though, as well as helping with the refurbishment and redecoration of the house including visits to the local brocantes to choose antique, or at least characterful, furniture, I was keeping in daily contact with what the girls were doing with my vlog on the developments at Ostia. There was no need to have worried, they were doing an excellent job and I decided that until Josie left to settle in to have her baby that I would just let them get on with it and only make an appearance if there were any further significant developments.

By the time I left, Mum and Dad were totally ignoring how I was dressed and my mannerisms and speech and I was accepted as a replacement daughter and introduced to their neighbours and friends, it was so good not to have to think about being exposed as Joey in a skirt.

When I arrived back home I found that Jack had moved in to keep Josie company in my absence and that they, mainly Josie, had made all the arrangements for their wedding and that they were heading over to take my place in Vayrac for a few weeks, before coming back to deal with last minute arrangements for the ceremony.

To avoid any risk of people putting two and two together, Josie had kept behind the camera and doing voice overs, if people saw my twin on screen it would not have taken long for someone to remember that she had a twin brother not a sister. I soon settled back into the routine of presenting my blog and continuing with the TV visits to the area’s historic heritage sites with Maggie and her friends after returning from my holiday looking and feeling happy and refreshed.

While Josie and Jack were over in France I handled the linking with the church and hotel for the wedding and reception, as well as going to the dressmaker for my fittings and adjustments to my Bridesmaid dress, making arrangements with Susie for a beauty regime to get me ready for the big day and to arrange the hen party for Susie and Josie’s other friends to have a good night out.

There was no fast progress on making headway with the sarcophagus and its contents, it was a slow analytical progress and there was not a lot to report, but progress was being made on the site in general.

While I was away, the team working down at the waterside on the remains of the jetty had erected a coffer dam, drained the area around the remaining pillars, and exposed even more piles going a lot further out into the sea, to the extent that even heavy cargo boats of that era would remain afloat even at low tide. It was all adding to the likelihood that Ostia was indeed a major trading post. I arrived early one morning and took an amazing photo of the sun rising shimmering over the exposed damp sand banks glistening off the rotting piles and used it as the backdrop for my vlog of the day report.

Even more of the large building was now exposed and it turned out to be a lot more complicated than earlier thought to be. At one end it appeared relatively basic, but from various portions of amphora and pots found, some still containing traces of their original contents, wine or olive oil it would appear to be a major storehouse. The other end, which was the minor part of the building appeared to be a barracks area. Many personal artefacts had been uncovered along with short battle swords and daggers. This area was more sophisticated, there were remains of underfloor drainage and hypocaust heating networks and patches of mosaic floors, assumed to be to be a guard room protecting the stores. Whilst the store area was of significant interest to Professor Carter and his team, the barracks area was a lot more relevant to my commentary on the life and times of the people that were stationed there.

Again I had the TV crew down to site, and fronted a report on the recent findings. I was worried that the constant reporting on the site would lead to boredom of the viewing public, but Jim, the director, assured me that whenever I made an appearance that the station was inundated with emails, texts and twitter posts congratulating us all on the posts and asking for more. Most of the interest came from people in the local area who were beginning to be proud of the town again, but the find was also beginning to attract more tourist visitors to the area helping to boost the local economy.

Josie and Jack were soon back from France and the next two weeks were hectic with the wedding preparations, visits to the church for a rehearsal, to the hotel to agree the final details of the wedding breakfast and the room decoration, to the printers to collect the ‘order of ceremony’ sheets and table place-cards, to the florists for the bouquets and garlands, and to the dressmakers for the final fittings of the gowns for Josie, me and the flower girls.

Sensibly, I had arranged for the hen party for two days before the wedding, so that we would all be as fresh as daisies on the big day.

Most of the girls were friends from university days, who knew me as Joey, so I was introduced by Josie to everyone as her cousin Jo, and they were told that Joey was enjoying himself away on a gap-year. My only concern going out on their celebrations was that with too much drink inside them that Josie or Susie would let slip my real identity, or even that I would somehow make a big mistake and be exposed and I almost decided to give it a miss. However, Josie convinced me that as her Chief Bridesmaid that I would be expected to be there, and I glammed up with the rest of them, with OTT party makeup, a skimpy short flared dress, bunny ears hairband, party-sash, and 4” heels before joining them.

While the rest of the party really got into the swing of things, had too much to drink and flirted outrageously with any lads that we came across in the bars and club, I used the excuse of having to take care of Josie as my get-out card to hold back on a lot of their activities and keep it all under control. Eventually I managed to get Josie home without any disasters.

When we were finally left on our own she reached over and gave me a big hug. “Thanks so much Jo, I’m really lucky to have a sister like you, I just wish that I had got to know you a lot earlier.”
She slurred in drunken confusion, “I couldn’t have asked for a better girl as my Chief Bridesmaid.”
I made her drink a lot of water hoping that it would help her recover more easily in the morning, took her to her room, stripped her and put her into her nightie, and tucked her into bed, before sorting myself out and then lying awake for a while thinking about what she had said.

In the morning I was up early, bright as a button, glad that I had stayed on fruit juice and soft drinks most of the previous night, I dressed casually, in leggings and a loose top, brushed out my hair, and popped in to check on what state Josie was in. She was snoring away still deep in sleep so I left her alone for an hour or so while I made myself breakfast.

Knowing how delicate she would be feeling, I just made her buttered toast to go with a pot of coffee to bring her round gently. “Get that inside you and when you are back in the world of the living, throw on something casual, we are going for a walk to get some fresh air.

We took along walk around the lake in the park, and felt a lot fresher.

“I’m desperate for a wee, there should be a toilet in that café. Come on, you order some coffees and cake while I sort myself out.” Realising that it was the place Karen worked I foresaw trouble ahead but Josie almost dragged me through the door, despite my attempts to persuade her that it would be better to make our way home and that I didn’t feel like a coffee. To my dismay Karen was behind the counter, and I noticed that she was staring at the pair of us. I reckoned that this was going to be awkward.

While Josie was away in the loo, Karen served another customer before coming over to my table.

“Hi Jo, who’s your friend, it must be family, you are almost twins? It’s a bit slack in here for the moment, the lunchtime rush will not be for another hour or so, I’ll get coffees and cake and come over to join you.”, Karen greeted me with a friendly smile. When she returned, Josie was back sitting next to me, her eyes kept jumping between the two of us, trying to work out who we both were.

Realising that I couldn’t come up with a decent story and that the pretence of being cousins would not stand up to any questions, I made a big decision and decided to be honest with her.

“Karen, I have a big confession to make, can you promise to keep it to yourself?”

“No problem, I’ll not even tell Jen if that’s what you want.”

“I’m not Josie that you were at school with, this is her, Josie this is Karen that you shared classes with.”

“Then who are you, you seem to know an awful lot about what we got up to at school?”

“Josie applied for a job, the job I am doing at the museum and at Ostia, but she couldn’t attend the interview so I went in her place, and got offered the position for her. She then found out that she is expecting and couldn’t take up the offer anyway, so I replaced her and took the job myself, and you know most of the rest of the story. As far as the museum and TV people are concerned although they know me as Jo, on their records I am Josephine, or Josie as you know her.”

“That all sounds believable, and not unreasonable, you are making a really good go of it too, but you haven’t answered the question, who are you really and why couldn’t you use your own name?”

I took a deep breath before answering, toying with the idea of keeping to the story that we were cousins, “I’m actually Joey, her brother.”

“Never in a million years, you are joking, aren’t you?”

“Unfortunately not, it wasn’t meant to turn out like this, the hole that I have dug for myself just keeps getting deeper and deeper, even to the extent that tomorrow when Josie gets married, I will be walking behind her as her Chief Bridesmaid.”

“But……you are so feminine, I would never have guessed, when we have had our nights with Jen you have just been another one of the girls, the way you talk about things, and obviously dress and act you just come across as a girl. If it’s not too rude, have you always been transgender.”

“I don’t think of myself as transgender, I am just playing a role as Josie to keep what has turned out to be an amazing job, I have only been Jo since I went for the interview. I tried to avoid coming in here today as I foresaw this conversation, but Josie almost dragged me through the door, I’m sorry if I have embarrassed you.”

“Not at all, I’m just amazed and surprised, not embarrassed. Anyway your secret is safe with me, as far as I’m concerned you are my friend Jo, and always will be as long as that is what you want, even now that you have told me I still see you as Jo, there is not a trace of boy in you.”

“Thanks for being so understanding Karen. It looks like your customers are starting to arrive, we’ll let you get on. Have a think about what I have told you, I’ll give you a call in a couple of days, after the wedding, to arrange to meet up and have a proper conversation.”

With both of us deep in thought about what had just happened it was virtually a silent walk back to home before we felt able to have a discussion.

“I’m sorry about that Jo, I didn’t realise why you didn’t want to go in the café. However it didn’t go too badly, Karen seemed a nice friendly girl, but can you trust her to keep it to herself?”

“I am sure that I can, in a way it is a bit of a relief that that she just accepted it, but after a lot of problems she has had in her life it probably doesn’t rank as a major issue. However it has made me think that sooner or later I will have to have the same conversation with Jacqui at the museum and I am not sure she and our employers they will be as understanding and accepting.”

* https://www.britannica.com/biography/Boudicca
** https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/castle-acre...
*** https://www.northofthedordogne.com/rocamadour.php
**** https://www.lascaux-dordogne.com/en/lascaux-cave
***** https://www.visit-dordogne-valley.co.uk/discover/natural-her...

To be continued.