Free The Liverpool Trilogy by Ruth Hamilton

mam, though. Mid-forties, is she?’
    Liz nodded.
    ‘So she’s not running
from,
she’s running
towards
. But I’ll bet you a pound to a penny she thinks she’s run away rather than towards.’
    ‘Towards what?’
    The nurse shrugged. ‘If she’s thought on this for a while, and if she’s taken money, she’ll be after a new start. Without realizing it, she’s gone for a fresh beginning. I reckon your dad’s behaviour has been like water dripping on stone. It takes a while, but the stone starts to get affected. Your mam was being worn down bit by bit, you see.’
    Alone once more, Liz went outside to try to reach Mike on his mobile. He answered. ‘Lizzie, Paul’s all right.’
    ‘Is Mother with him?’
    ‘Yes. She’s been given a mattress to lie on, and she’s taking him home tomorrow. Well, home to her new place.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘Liverpool.’
    ‘Oh. And where are you?’
    ‘Standing right behind you.’
    She turned and punched him playfully. ‘So you’ve brought my car back, at least.’
    ‘And how’s the real invalid, Lizzie?’
    ‘He died again, and they brought him back again.’ She paused and put away her phone. ‘Somewhere along the line, a huge amount of truth has gone for a walk. She’s protected us, and in doing so she’s protected him. Well, something like that.’
    It was plain that Lizzie was coming round to her brothers’ way of thinking. ‘You’ve been aware all along,’ said Mike. ‘But your daddy made you into a princess, and that blinded you. I know you’re not a lot younger than us, but we’ve been privileged, because we each had the other to talk to. We worked him out a while back. He uses cheap labour and cheap materials. When the houses start to fall down, he’ll wish he had died, because there’ll be a lot of people on his tail.’
    ‘That’s horrible, Mike. We don’t want him to die. Do we?’
    He shook his head. ‘But we want Mums to survive. He’s been drinking her life blood along with his Scotch for long enough. I know now, Lizzie. Mums and I went for a coffee, and she told me. Everything. She was her usual self, no anger, no resentment. The facts are plain. He stole every penny left by the Gramps. He acted exactly how they had expected him to act when they warned her not to marry him.’
    Liz gulped.
    ‘He mortgaged and remortgaged the house.’
    ‘How?’
    ‘Forgery. He forged Mums’s signature and probably some of the witnesses’ too. If he lives, he has a lot to face. He has a ton of unpaid bills. The land he bought at Bromley Cross may just cover his debts, mortgages included. That was why she let him keep that project. Even then, at the end of her marriage, she looked after him.’ He hugged his sister. ‘There is no woman in the world like her. With the exception of you. We are fortunate. God gave us our mother’s temperament.’
    Lizzie sat on a bench, and her brother joined her. Both remained deep in thought for several seconds. Then Lizzie spoke. ‘I wonder what she’ll do with Tallows? It’s a lovely place, and it shouldn’t be left to rot.’
    He shrugged. ‘I was talking to a bloke in the car park at the Countess of Chester. He was going to take her . . . home, but she asked me to tell him she was staying the night with Paul. Richard Turner, lives next door to her, has a disabled wife. Mums gave her a massage, and it helped. He’s a doctor. He told me Mums is starting a bed and breakfast business. Seems she’s no intention of going home to Tallows.’
    Lizzie nodded thoughtfully. ‘Perhaps she’ll do the same with Tallows – turn it into a hotel of some kind.’
    ‘Who knows, sis? The only thing that’s plain to me is that she won’t live with Dad again. All those years she just waited and said nothing – Jeez.’
    ‘Then she took her money back.’
    ‘She did. And she took into account inflation, the wages he never paid her for handling paperwork, the damage he did to her standing in the community. She says he built