Green Grass (33 page)

‘What will you say?'

Laura twists round and Inigo, who should be on a plane, is behind her balancing a ring on the tip of his finger.

‘Inigo,' Laura gasps. ‘What are you doing here?'

He takes her hand and puts the ring in her palm, then presses his hand on top.

‘I couldn't leave you behind. I'm staying, I want to be with you, wherever you want to be, and I'm going down on one knee right now, with no cameras or agents or art galleries anywhere near, to ask you to marry me. I thought we could keep it a secret, just our secret. But only if you say yes.'

He strokes Laura's hair. She nods, and he pulls her towards him to kiss her.

‘But I don't want it to be a secret,' she says.

Inigo is on his knee now, pushing the ring onto her finger. He looks up, relieved, as she says this, then grins wickedly.

‘That's lucky, because I've already given an interview to the radio and I've begun work on a piece called
My Wife, My Life.'

He stands up and wraps his arms around her. She clasps her hands behind his neck and whispers, ‘So what's it like?'

He bends to kiss her. ‘It's incredibly high maintenance, and it starts like this …'

Raffaella Barker, daughter of the poet George Barker, was born and brought up in the Norfolk countryside. She is the author of seven acclaimed novels,
Come and Tell Me Some Lies
,
The Hook
,
Hens Dancing
,
Summertime
,
Green Grass
,
Poppyland
,
A Perfect Life
and most recently,
From a Distance
. She has also written a novel for young adults,
Phosphorescence
. She is a regular contributor to
Country Life
and the
Sunday Telegraph
and teaches on the Literature and Creative Writing BA at the University of East Anglia and the Guardian UEA Novel Writing Masterclass. Raffaella Barker lives in Cley next the Sea, Norfolk.

Come and Tell Me Some Lies
The Hook
Phosphorescence
Hens Dancing
Summertime
A Perfect Life
Poppyland
From a Distance

COME AND TELL ME SOME LIES

Gabriella lives in a damp, ramshackle, book-strewn manor in Norfolk with her tempestuous poet father and unconventional mother. Alongside her ever-expanding set of siblings and half-siblings, numerous pets and her father's rag-tag admirers, Gabriella navigates a chaotic childhood of wild bohemian parties and fluctuating levels of poverty. Longing to be normal, Gabriella enrols in a strict day school, only to find herself balancing two very different lives. Struggling to keep the eccentricities of her family contained, her failure to achieve conformity amongst her peers is endearing, and absolute.

Come and Tell Me Some Lies
is Raffaella Barker's enchanting first novel – a humorous, bittersweet tale of a girl who longs to be normal, and a family that can't help be anything but.

‘Funny … Clever and touching'
Guardian

THE HOOK

Christy Naylor was forced to grow up quickly. Still reeling with anger after the death of her mother, she abandons college in order to help her father uproot from suburbia and start a new life on a swampy fish farm out in the sticks, a prize that he won in a shady game of poker.

Amid this turmoil, looms the mysterious Mick Fleet, tall, powerful and charismatic. Unsettled and unsure of herself, Christy is hooked on his intense charm. She knows nothing about him yet she feels like she is being swallowed up in his embrace and she plunges into a love affair blind to the catastrophe he will bring…

‘Stylish and insightful … With the pace and verve of a thriller'
Independent

HENS DANCING

When Venetia Summers' husband runs off with his masseuse, the bohemian idyll she has strived to create for her young family suddenly loses some of its rosy hue. From her tumble-down cottage in Norfolk she struggles to keep up with the chaos caused by her two boys, her splendid baby daughter and the hordes of animals, relatives and would-be artists that live in her home. From juggling errant cockerels, jam making frenzies and War Hammers, to unexpected romance, Bloody Mary's and forays into fashion design,
Hens Dancing
is like a rural
Bridget Jones' Diary
as it charts a year of Venetia's madcap household.

‘A positive hymn to provincial living, it is an entertaining celebration of family life with all its highs, lows and eccentricities'
The Times

A PERFECT LIFE

The Stone family live a seemingly fairy-tale existence, complete with fire pit barbeques and seaside picnics in their idyllic home in rural Norfolk. Nick, Angel and their four children appear to lead a charmed life.

But if everything is so perfect why is Nick away all of the time? Why is every conversation between husband and wife filled with growing silence? And why does their eldest child seem so disillusioned?

We all want a perfect life, but at what price?

Come and Tell Me Some Lies
is Raffaella Barker's enchanting first novel – a humorous, bittersweet tale of a girl who longs to be normal, and a family that can't help be anything but.

‘To write well and with such open-hearted affection is an achievement'
Observer

POPPYLAND

On a freezing cold night in an unfamiliar city, a man meets a woman. The encounter lasts just moments, they part barely knowing one another's names, they make no plans to meet again. But both are left breathless.

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 2002 by Headline

This electronic edition published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © 2002 Raffaella Barker

The moral right of the author has been asserted

‘Angels From Montgomery', words and music by John Prine © 1973 Cotillion Music Inc. and Sour Grapes Music, USA, Warner/Chappell Music Ltd, London W6 8BS. Reproduced by permission of International Music Publications Ltd. All rights reserved

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.

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.