Paula swapped the full bowl of minced vegetables for an empty one and continued to mince in silence. She and Dan were happy too, weren’t they?

“Penny for them.”

Paula glanced up at Dara who had stopped rolling and was watching her closely.

“I worry about Dan,” she said. “Even though the harvest doesn’t look good we are better off than some. We can still pay our bills and we’re having a baby but…”

“Can you be more specific? It’s a farmer’s lot to worry, you know, but is Dan acting out of character?”

“No, not really...well, perhaps.” Paula felt disloyal talking about their personal lives to someone else. “Maybe it’s because he carries the burden of running the place all on his own. At least Chris works with his father and his brother. That must make it easier, having someone to share the decisions with.”

Paula looked up as Dara snorted. “Don’t get me started on that,” she said. “More doesn’t necessarily equate to easier. Do you know, up until Chris and I made the business official and forced his father to come up with a new business plan, Chris, being the oldest, had the whole farm left to him in his father’s will.”

“But I thought you said Chris’s brother runs the place. Doesn’t he have boys who are helping as well?”

“Yes, that’s how crazy it all is. Chris, who doesn’t want to be a farmer, would have got the lot if his dad had dropped dead and his brother wouldn’t have been entitled to a cracker.”

“How can that happen?”

“Easily, it seems. When Chris decided to commit to our business, we made the family have a meeting and had a succession plan drawn up. Chris still has an interest of course, he earns it, but his brother will take over in the event of something happening to their dad.”

“That’s amazing.” Paula had stopped mincing. It was hard to take in the enormity of what Dara was saying.

“What’s even more amazing is that my sister-in-law, Mel, confided to me that all her married life she has had a small allowance, dished out by our mother-in-law, to cover the shopping and their small personal needs. Anything larger, like a new couch or a holiday, had to be okayed via Chris’s parents.”

“I don’t believe it.” Paula had totally given up on the mincing now and had walked around to where Dara was mixing more pastry. “How can you live like that?”