The food had been delicious. Dan had been pleased it had all gone well for her sake. She had agonised over what to cook for weeks. Now the women were in the kitchen doing the last of the dishes and making coffee.

Dan glanced around the lounge. They hadn’t painted in here but Paula had made it into a warm welcoming room with a variety of things they’d accumulated already. Some, like the gilt-edged mirror that hung over the mantelpiece, had been wedding presents from her family but Paula had added her own touch too. She’d cleaned up his grandparents’ old wooden trunk and repurposed it as a coffee table – there were magazines on it now and a dish of coloured glass, shells and driftwood she’d collected on their last visit to the beach. She’d even brought the old couch to life with throw rugs and cushions, and their wedding photo had pride of place on the mantel. Paula had made this old house into a home. It was difficult to comprehend Rowena’s suggestion that they could lose it. But the thought of losing the house was nothing compared to the land. And it wasn’t just him. Rowena, Paula and the baby all depended on him.

His father’s will was a trust which had effectively left the farm to Dan, but to be formalised on his thirtieth birthday. Dan had been only nineteen when his father had died. Barely out of school, he’d left the legal stuff to Rowena. He’d read the will of course, but thought the part about cousins obsolete. Now he knew he should have questioned it. Back then he’d buried his grief in farm work and sport and the occasional letting his hair down, partying with Bruce and their mates. His job was to take over the running of the farm. He’d never known the existence of a cousin. His father and Rowena had though.

He’d always trusted Rowena to do the paperwork. She had reassured him everything would work out and in Dan’s misery over his father’s death he’d accepted her maternal support. Rowena had never shown signs of dating, let alone marrying and having children of her own and he certainly didn’t have any marriage plans back then. He didn’t even have a girlfriend, let alone the possibility of children, and he didn’t know he had a cousin either. Dan shook his head. Had Rowena produced children Dan could understand his father might have wanted them to have an interest but why would he give a cousin the chance to take the farm from his own flesh and blood? He dug deeper into his childhood memories and had a vague recollection of references to high interest rates and someone bailing his father out of some debt. Dan scratched the back of his neck. Rowena would know.

“Dan?”