It was simply a shame that it had to interrupt his time with Jackie. He had to speak to his mother, and he found her sitting in a drawing room.
“Mother,” he said suddenly, appearing in the doorway. “Might we have a word?”
He needed to tell someone about what had happened between himself and Jackie, and he could not bring himself to speak to Lucien about it. His behavior has been strange, and he did not know how to feel about that. His mother, however, was all too happy to hear it all.
“You seem rather tired, Dearest,” she said gently, and he chuckled.
“It has been a long few hours with those two farmers.”
“At least it is settled now, and you did a wonderful job doing so.”
“I am certainly not used to handling such matters.”
“You will be in time. Now, what did you wish to talk about?”
“It is Lady Jacqueline. You must promise not to take it too far, but I have fallen for her, and I have told her as such.”
He should have made her promise first. Immediately, she began to cry, the smile on her face a mile wide.
“Oh, Philip, this is wonderful! I knew it was only a matter of time before the two of you confessed your feelings to one another.”
“She has not reciprocated.”
“What do you mean?” She asked, brow furrowed.
“She did not have time to,” he explained. “We were interrupted by those farmers, and so I had to leave.”
“Well, she shall tell you in time. I am sure of it, for I have seen how she looks at you. We all have; the two of you have not been as discreet as you might have thought.”
Philip wanted to believe that his mother was right, and that Jackie truly did feel the same as he did, but until she said it herself, he could not trust it too much.
“I hope that you are right, Mother. I truly did not expect to feel this way, not this quickly at least, but now I cannot believe that it has taken me so long to say something.”
“Then we must celebrate! I shall arrange everything, and make it a most grand affair. My son is in love!”
“No!” he gasped. “No, not as yet. We must wait until she has told me herself that she feels the same way. I shall not make you wait forever.”
In spite of his promise, she seemed quite disappointed.
“I am so happy for you, Dear,” she smiled. “But you have to trust it. I cannot be excited enough for the two of us.”
“Are you certain of that? You seem to be close enough to it.”
She laughed gently, placing a hand gently on his shoulder.
“I suppose you are right. Very well, we shall wait a little while longer, but you cannot blame me if I am so ecstatic that I give it away too soon!”
“We have a deal,” he promised, before the two of them left for dinner.
Lucien was already seated there.
“Oh!” Philip’s mother gasped. “Good evening. My son did not inform me of your attendance this evening.”
“If I were aware of it, I might have.”
“My apologies,” Lucien smiled. “It slipped my mind to tell you. I suppose I am here so often that I was confused with another time.”
“You certainly are here a lot,” Philip nodded.
