Cash should have known that Theo would figure him out. The flowers were risky in the first place, but he couldn't find the words for a note — he wanted to tell Theo about the baby, preferably before the notice was published in the Daily Prophet. The owl found him in his office late on the twenty-ninth, reading an Edgar Allan Poe story because he could not face his clubs and had not found a way to talk to his still-frail wife.

He opened the note, which was short, and ran his thumb over the stem of the rose. Theo found him out. He'd suspected this would happen, but had hoped that he would hear from Theo after the Prophet notice, and not before. He pulled out a blank piece of parchment. He locked Theo's note in his drawer. He tapped the feather of a quill against the parchment several times, but could not manage it.

He used the rose as a bookmark, gave Theo's owl some pellets, and vowed to try again tomorrow. On the thirtieth, he didn't manage to send a note, or even to try, and went to bed knowing that Theo would know about the baby the next day.