“Something I should have done years ago.” He was inspecting the desk again.

“And what did you say you were doing there?”

“While you were away Bree and Kate did the BAS and they both complained about the cold up in the dining room. Bree thought we could make this corner of the kitchen into a proper office, get a bigger desk, move the computer. And in the summer it’s cooler here with the aircon.”

“Great idea.” Natalie took a sip of coffee.

Milt looked back at her, hands on hips. “Do you know what they discovered while they were going through statements?” She shook her head, more interested in the fact that the girls had done the BAS. She’d be making sure Bree kept that up. There’d been talk of shifting the office years ago but nothing had come of it. Perhaps she should go away more often but she wasn’t going to say that out loud. “We hadn’t stopped the payments going into Mum and Dad’s joint account.”

Natalie sat forward. “I’m sure I did that?”

“No.”

“No wonder I was having trouble making things balance. I’m sorry, Milt. I don’t think I’ve been on top of the bookwork lately.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been much help to you in that department. I’m going to improve.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“This new corner office is a start and we can talk about other things I can do later, but guess who was draining that old account?”

“Not Connie?”

“Yes, Connie.” He waved his hands in the air. “Mum had allowed it, of course, but Connie had wheedled it out of her playing the ‘poor me, I didn’t inherit the farm’ card.”

Natalie was instantly angry with her sister-in-law. She’d been given so much over the years. Clem had been very generous with his daughter, but then Natalie felt a little sorry for Connie. “She’s never had her own separate income.”

“You’re not making excuses for her, Natalie.”

“I guess she didn’t get a choice about the property like our girls have.”

Milt’s eyes flashed with anger. “I didn’t get a choice either. It was expected I would work the property. No-one asked me what I wanted to do. I had a duty to take it on.”

“But I always thought you loved the property, the work, the lifestyle.” She had questioned so much of her own life in the last few weeks without thinking her husband might be questioning his.

“It’s not always been easy but it has been a good life. I just get annoyed when it’s assumed I had a choice in the matter. Connie was expected to go to uni and I was expected to run the property but sometimes I wonder if I’d grown up in the town or in the city, perhaps I could have done something else.”