William came out dressed as if he were a man who had come for a date with his lover, which was weird, considering that he had informed her to come out to the park for the purpose of gathering writing data.

They sat side by side on a bench, and after a brief chat, he invited her to join him at the restaurant. It was a cozy looking restaurant, where lovers frequented, but most customers were couples of men and women who sat across from each other, unlike them.

Other customers kept glancing at Rowena and William.

“This is the usual sequence of dates for lovers, you know.”

When the meal was somewhat over, William held out a contract with the publisher’s seal stamped on it and offered it to Rowena. After a moment’s hesitation, She took the contract.

“I thought you didn’t like my novel.”

“I also said that I liked the atmosphere and the writing style. Then, since you borrowed my words today, I think I said that there is plenty of potential for further development.”

William smiled brightly, and took something from behind his back. It was a bouquet of ten roses. Startled by the gesture, Rowena’s eyes widened while he held out his hand with flowers as if to urge her to take it.

“This is a flower to celebrate the signing of the contract.”

“Do you usually go…..this far?”

In a situation where two men sitting cozily in a restaurant like this looked weird to the eyes of strangers, and receiving flowers was definitely a good way to mislead them.

“Isn’t this your first contract? I give roses to all my first contract writers. It’s a kind of ritual.”

“…….”

“My hands are starting to hurt. Haha.”

She had no choice but to accept the gift since he already said this much.

That was the end of their meeting.

She took the contract and stamped it with her seal, which she had brought just in case, and handed it back over again. They agreed to communicate through Melissa for any future inquiries.

Now that the contract was signed, all that was left was the manuscript. Although she had written most of the novel, it was still a rough draft. She needed to hold on to it in order to fix some of the points that William pointed out, and further polish the final draft.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Killian didn’t come to see her during the first week of her immersion in the manuscript.

“It seems like his grace has a lot of work to do. Gertrude says that he isn’t in the capital at the moment.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. That’s strange. Normally, when he is away for such a long period of time, he would either say something to the young lady beforehand or send a word with a messenger.”

“He must be busy.”

Chuckling at Melissa’s words, Rowena added the final touch on her manuscript. When he was around, she could hardly breathe or look at him, but without him, she couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. As a result, she often woke up at dawn.