Rowena gave a soft snort. “They are, but in recent years we’ve had some good seasons.”

“I do understand that.”

Paula had grown to realise Rowena’s brusque manner was just her way of dealing with people but it was daunting nonetheless. Sometimes Paula still got the feeling that Rowena wished Dan had married a country girl.

“You can never tell what lies ahead on the farm.” Rowena turned her palms up as she spoke. “This year we didn’t get enough final rain to bring the crops to their full potential. Now we have to decide whether or not to take a chance that we’ll get some grain or to cut it for hay. We could lose stock through disease.”

What a barrel of laughs Rowena was, Paula thought. She was determined to keep the conversation positive. “But Dan was worried about the loan he took to go into partnership with Ted. At the moment there’s enough leeway to meet that commitment.”

“Yes, but…”

Rowena had stopped mid-sentence and was staring at the papers in front of Paula. “Is something wrong?”

Rowena looked up quickly. “No. I’d just forgotten about that little partnership with Ted.”

Paula raised her eyebrows. “It’s not exactly little. We are carrying the bigger portion of debt but these sheep are our future, according to Dan. There’s quite a bit riding on the sheep’s back.” Paula smiled at her pun.

“You’ve only been here a short while,” Rowena snapped. “I think we’ll leave the final prognosis up to Bill Clavell. His firm have managed our financial affairs for many years.” She busied herself pouring the tea.

Paula clenched her teeth. Rowena liked to disregard the fact that Paula was an accountant and now worked in that capacity for other people from home. It had taken months to convince Dan, then Rowena, that she was more than capable of doing the farm bookwork. She’d had several sessions with Rowena in preparation for her taking over the account keeping from the older woman.

Before marrying Dan, Paula had worked for a busy firm in Sydney. In that role she had to keep a close eye on the financial affairs of the business as well as do a certain amount of PR. She was personal assistant to the managing director who also happened to be her boyfriend at the time, so, ironically, she looked after him well at work and at home.

Paula may not have been allowed to work on Dan’s books but there were others locally who were happy to employ her. She had built up a regular number of clients already.