John ignored the mess he was making and pulled out drawers to search them one by one. In case his letter had gone missing, John had cleverly made another copy of his contract, in hopes that during the party he would find a time to speak with Mortimer alone and persuade him to sign. However, seeing as Mortimer was about as popular as the Queen of England, his chances of getting a signature were slim to none. His backup plan of getting Ellie to sign had been torn to shreds when, for the first time in almost six years, she was actually making sense. In fact, she was just as terrifying as she had been back when Gerard had married her. As a result, John had pretty much steered clear of her.
Pushing a stack of mail to the side he caused some papers to flutter onto the ornate richly woven rug t
