“Leave such a prescriptive will? Your father or his father or his father? You could blame them all,” she snapped. “Your great-grandfather was of the generation that believed only men could run farms and it’s been perpetuated.”

“But why would he leave a will that opens the possibility of ruining his only son’s chance of keeping the family farm?” Dan slapped a hand to his chest. He didn’t know whether the pain he felt was anger or sadness. “Why would he do that to me?”

“He always felt he owed Freddy.”

“Why?”

“Your father took out a loan not long before your mother died. The farm was doing okay but in need of new machinery and sheds. Then in the early nineties there was a recession.” Rowena snorted. “‘The recession we had to have’ it was called. Anyway, interest rates went through the roof and Freddy loaned your father some money. It was a terrible time. We would have lost the farm without Freddy’s help. It wasn’t a huge amount of money by today’s standards and your father paid him back of course, but Daniel always felt he owed Freddy.”

Dan shook his head. “But if the debt was repaid that surely wouldn’t jeopardise his own son inheriting.”

“Your father made that will when your mother died. You were only three. I guess he thought if something happened to you there might be another Woodcroft male somewhere else. And there was always the possibility I would marry and have children. If that had happened my grandson could have inherited or at least made a claim. As the only surviving executor that would have put me in a difficult position.”

Dan watched her scrape a wisp of hair away from her cheek. She used to be as blonde as he was but these days the blonde was fading and streaked with grey. He’d never given much thought to what she may have sacrificed all those years ago, to look after her brother and his child. She was right though. If she’d had a son who’d had a son older than Dan’s baby, the farm could have gone to that branch of the family. He shook his head. It surely didn’t need to be this complicated. Even the British royals had worked out a much simpler succession plan.