The offer for Ben to stay was expected but still encouraging — the fact that it extended to Melody was unexpected, to say the least. He couldn't imagine any scenario in which the pair of them would need to take Aldous up on the offer — but perhaps that wasn't what Aldous had meant. Ben had just said Melody couldn't be trusted alone; maybe the offer was more in the vein of using the Crouch home in Bartonburg as a secure place to inter her temporarily if they reached the point where they could not stand to be in the same house anymore, but Ben didn't think it safe to leave. It was not support he hoped to draw on in the coming months, if that was what Aldous had meant, but... well, he supposed it was vaguely encouraging that Aldous was willing to offer, all the same. His brother was there for him, even when the situation was delicate and uncomfortable and the ways in which he might show his support were unconventional at best.

"Thank you," he said, his voice sincere yet hesitant. "At the moment I'd most like to go back to Irvingly."