Hens Dancing (31 page)

Five years on they live thousands of miles apart and live totally separate lives, except that they both still think about that night. So when they meet again it seems clear that they will do all they can to try and stay together, but can it be that easy? Will they be able to escape their past? Will they be able to take the risk they know they should?

‘A modern day
Brief Encounter
'
Daily Express

FROM A DISTANCE

In April, 1946, Michael returns on a troopship from the war. In shock, he is caught in a moment at a station, and on impulse, takes the train heading west to Cornwall. In doing so he changes his destiny.

May, 2012, and Kit, a charming stranger, arrives in a coastal Norfolk village to take up his inheritance – a de-commissioned lighthouse, half hidden in the shadows of the past, but now sweeping it's beam forward through time. Married Luisa falters in the flow of her life – suspended, invisible – as her children begin to fly the nest. When Kit and Luisa meet, neither can escape the consequences of the split-second decision made by Michael all those years ago.

‘I love Raffaella Barker's books – so funny and acerbic' Maggie O'Farrell

www.bloomsbury.com/RaffaellaBarker

First published in Great Britain in 1999 by Headline

This electronic edition published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © 1999 Raffaella Barker

The moral right of the author has been asserted

The right of Raffaella Barker to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

‘Me and Bobby McGee', words and music by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster © 1969, Combine Music Co, USA. Reproduced by permission of EMI Songs Ltd, London WC2 0EA.

‘Sorrow', words and music by Bob Feldman, Jerry Goldstein and Richard Gotte © 1965 Grand Canyon Music Inc/EMI Partnership Ltd. Worldwide print rights controlled by Warner Bros Inc, USA/IMP Ltd, reproduced by permission of IMP Ltd.

All rights reserved
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN: 978-1-4088-5161-6

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