Jeffrey looked to his usual champion for support, but at her hesitation, he realized he was going to lack defense even from her, and he was slightly put out for the moment.
“You are certainly pleasant, Jeffrey,” she said with her usual diplomacy. “As for jovial, well, I wouldn’t necessarily use the word to describe you, especially at the breakfast table. You much prefer to grumble about and read your papers. Which is fine. We cannot all be jolly in the morning.”
He did grumble a bit, then, but even his family’s astonishment couldn’t break his spirits. The woman he desired more than anyone or anything he ever had before returned his affections and was going to be his wife. His affairs, his family, his home was in order. What more could a man ask for? Well, there was the business of that blasted publication, but he would worry about that afterward.
“It’s the woman, isn’t it?”
Jeffrey looked over at Ambrose, who now leaned back his chair, a sly smile crossing his face. Some of Jeffrey’s joyful spirit slightly diminished. He knew that smile, and it wasn’t one of which he was particularly fond. For when Ambrose smiled like that, it spoke of trouble.
“I believe you mean Lady Phoebe, Ambrose,” Lady Berkley slightly admonished her son, and Jeffrey smiled at his mother, always the peacemaker, as she had to be with six — well, make that five — slightly unruly children, and then himself.
“Very well, then,” Ambrose corrected, though the glint in his eye remained. “The lovely Lady Phoebe. Has something happened?”
They all looked at Jeffrey, their shock turned into expectant expressions. Jeffrey shifted slightly in his chair. He and Phoebe had not had the opportunity to actuallydiscussmuch of their betrothal, and he felt somewhat uncomfortable in sharing the news with his family until he had the opportunity to speak with her again. And yet, he had never lied to them, and he wasn’t about to start this morning.
“Something has happened, yes,” he said, and one of his sisters — Annie or Penny, he wasn’t entirely sure which — squealed from the other end of the table, while his mother gasped and Viola and Rebecca both grinned. Ambrose simply regarded him with a calculating look on his face.
“And?” Rebecca prodded, but he shook his head.
“At the moment I am not able to say anything further,” he responded but accompanied his words with a slight smile. “But rest assured that you will be the first to know should there be any further developments.”
“Ooh, Jeffrey, you can be positively vexing!” Penny exclaimed, and he winked at her, to which she did not entirely know how to respond, as Jeffrey was not the type to wink at anyone, least of all his sisters.
He felt a cool, soft hand on his arm.
“As long as you are happy, Jeffrey, that is all that matters,” his mother said gently, and he smiled at her. He knew how lucky he was to have been raised by a woman like her. He had loved his father as well, of course, but in a different way. He had been impressed by him, respected him, but the marquess had expected so much that Jeffrey always felt he had fallen short of what the previous Lord Berkley had required in an heir. Then again, most young gentlemen did not take on their title at the age of eighteen, so he supposed if he had more time before doing so, his father might have appreciated his efforts a little more.
But that was neither here nor there at the moment.
“Thank you, Mother,” was all he said.
“Oh, Jeffrey,” Rebecca called from down the table. “You haven’t forgotten about the Dennington’s party this evening, have you?”
“Of course not,” he said, he hoped somewhat indignantly, though, in fact, hehadforgotten all about it. He wondered if Phoebe would be in attendance, and hoped very much that she would.
“Good,” his sisters said, approving of him for once, he thought, and he shook his head ruefully as he let the idle chatter and speculations as to his current state of relationship status continue around him.