"I most certainly am," Aldous answered swiftly, "if that is what it takes to get you away from that woman."

Perhaps not entirely publicly, but at the very least, he would inform Roman so that their brother might be briefed before they came to wrest Reuben from the house.

"Based on your description of Mrs. Crouch's character," how he hated, now, to call her by their mother's name, "I have not a whit of confidence that you are not now similarly under her influence." If Ben had let Aldous come with him for the...confrontation, they might not now be in this position.