There was sense in what his sister said, of course. This was in line with the advice he'd silently given himself that morning, to consider what Aldous would do in a similar situation — in other words, not to do anything rash or commit to a course of action based on emotion rather than consideration. The urgency had come from the possibility that she had been seen; if he needed to do anything before rumors started spreading, his time was limited. But November thought the rumors would fade, if they came about at all, so taking a few days was for the best.

"I need time, anyway," he admitted. "To think through... contingencies." Melody and he were at least evenly matched when it came to making ill-advised, impetuous decisions. She might have been worse than he was, particularly when she felt trapped in a situation or as though her options were disappearing. If she suspected he was planning to divorce her (which seemed unlikely, given November's advice in this conversation) or move out (very likely, in his mind) then she might do something drastic. He had to think through what that could be and head her off before she'd had a chance to set anything in motion. Two years ago when he'd been determined to move out he hadn't much cared what she did in response, but now they had a daughter, and Ben had a responsibility to protect her from the consequences of her mother's decisions, whenever he could.

"Thank you for your advice, Nova," he added, with a brief flicker of a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

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