Liz has a quiet determination to overcome the obstacles that have beset her with the collapse of her husband's property business when the economic climate drastically struck. She has many new hurdles to surmount before she finds happiness, but through it all is still the lovely warm hearted girl.
LIZ
By Helen WoodTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2011 Helen Wood
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4269-6714-6Chapter One
The sun shone through the trees dappling the water beneath. She lay on a flat boulder enjoying this half an hour before turning her thoughts into actions. Liz had thought briefly how could she possibly stop the sale at this late stage but she dismissed it, her mind was made up.
She sprang up and jumped on to the riverbank turned and ran up the garden and let herself in at the side door. She had lifted the telephone and asked for Harry. Harry had been their solicitor ever since they had gone into the business of selling property. In level tones she had told him to withdraw the house indefinitely.
'Are you sure Liz?' Harry's voice had an element of surprise.
'Never as sure in my life.' she answered.
'Liz,' John Miller called as he breezed into the house. Liz emerged from the kitchen and looked at him squarely.
'Have you been in touch with Harry just now or vice versa?' she asked her husband.
'No, why has he been in contact with us?'
'No but I have, stopping the sale of the property.' said Liz calmly.
'You have done what!' said John.
'Taken the property off the market.'
Hearing this he went berserk.
'You cannot do that, you know perfectly well we have as good as sold it.'
Liz held her ground.
'Well I have spoken to Harry and he now knows the position.' She continued getting bolder by the minute.
'Another thing you never tell me anything these days. I want to know more about your deals. I have never really known the full facts of the property market and why are we selling this house?'
'Don't you realise the money from this house is spoken for, you stupid woman.' John butted in.
Disregarding his last remark she continued.
'Ever since I married you, true at first I liked the idea of moving around with you, selling one house, buying another, a bigger and better one than before but soon I wanted to put down roots, I wanted to settle in one place and get to know the people there and start living like them.'
John impatiently raised his arm.
'You never told me, why didn't you?'
Liz was furious. She could not contain herself.
'What do you mean? I really thought you too were in favour of it. It took me a long time to realise that it was the furthest thing from your mind.'
Even in those days power had gone to John's head and what Liz saw she did not like.
'But there is one thing I grant you.' Liz continued. 'You can get out of holes like no one else, so it won't be any problem getting out of this one.'
In the ten years they had been married, he had trailed Liz up and down the country often leaving her in hotel lounges while he made a killing on an unsuspecting family, getting a nice big wedge of the profit. He could hardly admit to himself that he had not taken time out to be with his wife. It was only dawning on him now that he should have heeded the warnings, small warnings then, but now the impact was rushing in on him.
From a distance Liz was saying something but for the minute he was seeing fleeting moments of the past when he should have taken Liz's advice instead of going on regardless. Only this morning he had been talking to a chap who had gone to the wall in the same business and now here was Liz stopping the sale of the house. How on earth was he going to intimate to her that it was imperative the sale should go through or they would end up in the bankruptcy court.
One could not say that John Miller was not clever in his business deals. He toured the countryside to acquire the right property in the right district for his clients. They in turn were up made with the quickness of the transaction and they would certainly put business his way, taking his card before parting and that was the case in many instances. Money was no object but he had forgotten one thing although he was up to the minute with market trends, he did not reckon with the recession just around the corner, that it would be knocking on his door before he realised it.
John blurted out to his wife his financial state one Sunday morning.
They had got up and Liz was buttering toast for herself. She turned and looked at him.
'Am I hearing properly, are you sure?'
She sat down at the kitchen table, her breath coming in little gasps as the full force of his words registered.
'Do you mean honestly that this house has to go to square up the bank?'
John turned and looked out at the overgrown garden.
'Yes it has and other things as well,' he said.
'Other things. What other things? Please tell me, this cannot be happening.' her voice all of a sudden becoming croaky.
Liz had been talking to his back but as she stopped speaking he slowly turned, his face ashen. For a few seconds she stared at him, the torment was there to be seen. Instead of thirty-nine, he looked sixty-nine. Liz knew deep down how much it had cost him, to tell her the full details.
'The downhill road started around eighteen months ago and it has steadily got worse.' confessed John.
For a long moment it was his turn to look at Liz. Her face slumped into her hands, elbows on the table, dejected and isolated. He took one step and fell on his knees putting his arms around her holding her tightly. A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. At length they clung together their emotions intermingled, the real world suspended for the moment.
Days passed quicker than they liked. Instead of things turning to their advantage they could not see a glimmer of hope. Liz seemed to be the stronger of the two when they were facing the worst time of their lives.
They had been over the plight they had found themselves in again and again. Discriminations had been voiced from both of them. Liz saying lots of things that weren't called for, hurtful and damning innuendoes, but once said she felt better getting them off her chest. As for John, when roused, hit where it felt most. Liz could not stop his tirade, she covered her ears until he drew breath. It was useless to try and appease him.
Official looking letters had come through the letterbox and they had been put to one side.
'I shall open them later.' John had said.
Liz had found a score of these at the back of the bureau and now started to open them. Everyone was a demanding letter from solicitors on behalf of their clients. The last two, she was horrified, they were hotels they had stayed at in Buckinghamshire for three weeks and eight days respectively away in November of last year. She remembered only too well both were full board and looking at the amounts, she could hardly believe the staggering figure. Liz prowled around the house like a demented lioness.
'Where the devil is he?'
She could not contain herself. She grabbed her coat and ran out of the front door. It seemed as she ran she put a wide birth between herself and the awful truth she had just discovered.
Liz nose-dived into John on the bend of the drive. John catching her left arm swinging her round to a stop seeing her blazing eyes.
'Steady on. Nothing can be as bad as you make out.'
Liz gathered strength from somewhere. She pummelled his chest with her fists.
'Typical! I don't know how you can be so placid. Do you know what is in those letters in the bureau? Don't tell me you have forgotten about them. All of them are demanding money and you have the audacity to tell me nothing can be as bad as I make out.'
John was floored...
