The Fight for Lizzie Flowers Read Online Free Page A

Miller reached out for his girlfriend.
    ‘Don’t tell me to calm down, Syd.’ Flo Allen pushed him away. ‘Frank has screwed up our lives again. Why couldn’t he stay dead, like most people do when they stop
breathing?’
    Lizzie gazed at her sister. Flo had to get her annoyance off her chest. Flo, although five years younger than Lizzie, was protective, loyal to the last. More to the point, she could not forgive
Frank for the unhappiness he had brought to their lives.
    ‘You don’t believe his bullshit, do you?’ Flo thrust back her short, shiny brown hair and raised her black eyebrows challengingly.
    ‘No, course I don’t,’ Lizzie assured her. ‘The registrar had no choice but to call off the wedding.’
    ‘Lizzie ain’t at fault,’ Syd agreed. ‘But we know who is.’
    Lizzie liked Sydney Miller a lot. He was officially Flo’s lodger, but Lizzie knew he had shared Flo’s bed since moving into Langley Street. Syd had been Flo’s first boyfriend
and Lizzie had disapproved of him. But somehow he had managed to distance himself from the influence of his notoriously troubled family.
    Lizzie sighed deeply as she sat on the well-worn fireside chair. This was the house she and her brothers and sisters had been brought up in. Passed now to Flo, it still held the memories of
their childhood and she loved it.
    ‘Well, someone’s got to eat all the food,’ Flo said with half a smile as she stuck out her ample bust under the soft material of her damson chiffon blouse. The colour was
flattering but was currently at odds with the scarlet blush of anger flooding into her cheeks. ‘I’ll just get me bag and we’ll go next door.’
    ‘Where the hell has Frank been?’ Syd asked Lizzie when they were alone.
    ‘In hospital, so he says. A mental institution.’
    ‘In that case, why don’t you and Danny just move in together?’
    ‘What would it be like for Polly and Tom if we did? The gossip was bad enough after Frank bombed the shop. The kids at school wouldn’t go near Polly. They were afraid Frank would
come after them too. I can’t let that happen again.’
    ‘Yeah, I get your meaning.’ Syd pulled a white square of crumpled cloth from his trouser pocket and blew his nose. He was wearing a white shirt and armbands and a smart grey
waistcoat. Standing only five foot seven tall, he was a pocket Hercules. He made up for his lack of height with his strength and bulging biceps. With his close-cropped light brown hair, square jaw
and fresh-faced complexion, he looked every inch the Billingsgate porter. ‘How’s Danny taken it?’ he asked in concern.
    Lizzie looked away as her insides tightened. There wasn’t a bad bone in Danny’s body, but Frank had pushed him to his limit today. Even when Danny had returned to England last year
and learned of Frank’s treachery, he’d still refused to believe that Frank had deliberately deceived him. Even now, it was hard to believe that she’d fallen for Frank’s
twisted version of Danny’s married life in Australia. Who could blame Danny, after discovering the truth, for hardening his heart?
    ‘I’ve got five brothers,’ Syd continued in a whisper, turning to glance over his shoulder. ‘I’ve only got to say the word and your problem will be sorted. You
won’t see Frank for dust.’
    Lizzie lifted her eyes to the man who would soon be her sister’s husband. Syd was tough and kind and he would love Flo until his last breath. But he was also a Miller. And their name in
the East End was legendary. It was a known fact that each brother had spent more time in custody than at liberty. Lizzie always marvelled that her soon-to-be-brother-in-law was the only Miller to
be born with an instinct for goodness.
    ‘No, Syd,’ she refused. ‘Thanks all the same.’
    ‘I’d stick my neck out for you and Danny.’
    ‘Better we sort it ourselves.’
    Syd nodded, flushing slightly. ‘Just as long as you and Danny know I’ve got your backs.’
    Flo walked