Learn English – Why would the author write ‘and happy indeed I was’ instead of ‘and I was happy indeed’ in this passage

Whether it be is subjunctive because it represents a conditional, as in the speaker does not know your life and what you will talk about. Whether is a conditional word so it causes the subjunctive form of verbs which tend to look the same as the infinitive form.

However, in common usage, whether it is is also acceptable. It is, however, not considered as formal. In truth, you can use the subjunctive or present form after whether and both will be understood.

i.e. "Whether it run fast or slow." and "whether it runs fast or slow."

The present tense form is, in my experience, more common.

It seems that the subjunctive is more common with very common verbs like be or go, as well as modals like can or shall.

Under normal circumstances, "finally asked", and "finally would ask" are not quite the same.

"Asked" is for an event that happened in the past. "Would ask" can be used in either of 2 ways: for an event that used to happen as a general recurring pattern (probably more than once) in the past, OR for an event which, from a past perspective, will happen in the future (i.e. the past tense of "will ask").

But in this particular passage, I also am puzzled as to why the author chose to say "she finally would ask" (possibly repetitive action in the past) followed immediately by "He murmured"(simple past), and then another indication of habitual/recurring events, namely the phrase "from one phone call to the next".

This passage has a fascinating ambiguity to it that makes it hard to decide if this event really happened just once, or if it is part of a pattern of occurrences in the past, or if it the whole thing is taking place in the character's imagination.

Or, it is possible that it's just bad writing, but if so, I would say it's "good quality bad writing", if that's possible.

I do get the feeling that the female character is in a very distraught or mixed-up mental state, either because of emotion or mental illness, or maybe some other reason. The confusion and vacillation between verb tenses certainly adds to that impression. Perhaps that is why the author made the grammar choices he did.