She turned the volume down a little, confident that she would hear the alert signal should there be further messages. Her body was dripping with perspiration but her mouth was dry. She brought the jug of water from the fridge and poured herself a large glass before settling down to look through the contents of the drawer.

The envelope that had first caught her attention was from the bank and probably only junk mail. She put it to one side and spent some time looking through the books and notes, some of which dated back to when Dan’s father ran the property. There was a book of rainfall statistics and another with descriptions of each paddock, what had been sown and when, sprays used and finally, yields. Paula had seen Dan working on this particular book just recently. She knew he had another to record stock data.

She really would have to learn more about the computer programs they could use to manage all this. She dropped the books and papers back in to the drawer and picked up the envelope with the bank logo. It was quite bulky and Dan’s name and address were handwritten on the front but it had no postage details. It wasn’t junk mail. She turned it over and could see that the resealable back had been opened once already.

She had never opened anything that was addressed personally to Dan before. There had never been any reason for her to do so. Most mail that he got was to do with running the farm and he passed it on to her if she needed to deal with it.

She fanned her face with the envelope. It was probably nothing of importance to her search but finally she couldn’t resist the urge to open it. She flicked her eyes quickly over the documents then dropped them back onto the table. They were the papers Dan must have organised to change the loan. She remembered when he’d asked her about it and she’d said there was no point in paying transfer fees for a loan when it was fine the way it was. How desperate he must have been and yet he still hadn’t told her.

Paula ran her fingers through her hair. In spite of her makeshift cooling system she was hot. The turmoil inside her didn’t help. What kind of a future did they have if Dan wasn’t going to be open with her?

Chapter 40

CHAPTER

40

Dan waved to Bruce as he drove away. It had taken them over sixteen hours to get back from the clearing sale. The truck Bruce had bought kept overheating and they’d eventually stopped for a snatch of sleep before completing the slow trip home.

Spud barked at him from his enclosure outside the house yard. Dan let the excited animal out and gave him a scratch around the ears.

“How have you been, mate?”