January 28th, 1891 — Crouch Home, Bartonburg

It had been two days now — the evening of the 26th, the entirety of the 27th, and most of the 28th — and Ben was feeling rather restless. Melody had delivered on her promise of letters, but the words on paper conveyed nothing, really. He had no idea how she was feeling or what she was thinking, or how long she would put up with this before she gave up on him. And he still had no real indication from Aldous of when he might be allowed to go back home without suspicion.

The first day he'd had nothing to do, really, except sulk. Yesterday he'd done some small amount of work, just what he could accomplish with owls, to try and make the day seem shorter. Today, he'd decided to actually go out to Jewell's office. He didn't think Aldous would like it, but Ben wasn't a prisoner here. He had intended to get home before either of his brothers, but there had been more work waiting for him than he'd thought there would be (only reasonable, given that he'd been blowing his job off basically all week) and when he finally flooed back to his brother's home, Aldous was already there.

"I went to the distillery," he explained stiffly, though his brother hadn't yet asked. "I still have a job, you know, and I intend to keep it. You can owl Anne Cartney at the front desk if you don't believe me."

Aldous Crouch

  

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If the earth could swallow him and trap him in the very depths of hell, Aldous decided, it would be preferable to this moment. His options "I didn't ask," he replied calmly.

In fact, the existence of his brother's job was something Aldous had had to remind himself of when he did return to find the house empty of his siblings and did, admittedly, begin to worry that Melody had snatched him up like a monster from a children's story. That had been the better part of an hour ago, though, and the wizard had since had time to come to his senses and maintain a slightly frazzled form of relaxation in the parlour.

"I am glad to hear it, though," he added. Aldous knew Reuben did not particularly wish to be here but was sticking it out for him. However, the 'few days' they had agreed upon would certainly stretch if they didn't have their discussion soon, but Aldous was not altogether certain how, precisely, to broach the subject.

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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Yeah, bullshit you didn't, Ben thought rather cynically. He'd spoken before Aldous had the chance to, that was true, but Aldous' expression had asked for him. Even the fact that he was seated in the parlor waiting for Ben to return like Ben was a debutante who'd snuck out without a chaperone spoke volumes about how much he still, even after several days, didn't trust Ben.

He had to remind himself that Aldous was only doing what he thought was best — he wasn't out to get him, or to destroy his marriage. It wasn't Aldous' fault that this had all happened the way it had, and there was nothing to do but endure it. He couldn't tell Aldous what was going on, he couldn't tell Melody what was going on. Neither Aldous nor Melody was likely happy with him. That was just what he would have to live with, at least until his brother eventually allowed him to go back home, when he could hopefully start making headway with at least one of those two problems.

He helped himself to a drink from the sideboard and sat on one of the sofas across the room from Aldous. "So," he said, without further explanation. The unspoken question: Can I go home yet?

  

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He let out a heavy sigh, then rose to pour each of them a glass of brandy. He levitated the glasses to their respective coasters—his impediment did not allow him to carry both comfortably at once—before returning to his seat. Aldous ignored his glass, though, instead asking the question he had been actively not asking since he and Reuben had left Irvingly.

"Why the change of heart?" He did his best to look the part of 'you can tell me anything' big brother, but could not quite keep a faint edge of skepticism from his voice.

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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Ben shifted his gaze down to his drink and carefully twirled his glass, watching the liquid spin into a slow tornado. "I don't really want to talk about it," he said, though he had no faith that Aldous would let things go just at that. One might have thought that given two days to reason it out, Ben would have a better excuse by now, or at least a strategy for how to get through this conversation, but the truth was he'd been so preoccupied worrying about Melody that he hardly spared any thoughts for his brothers. He didn't even know how much Roman knew about everything, actually, but he had to know something, because it was not exactly typical for Ben to come and stay for a week straight.

"There was something I didn't know about when I decided to leave," he eventually said, taking a drink of the brandy. "That I found out when I went back to talk to her."

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   Melody Crouch

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Something he didn't know.

There were two options, Aldous decided then, and he dearly hoped it was the former.

"Her family have decided to cough up a dowry," he stated, rather than asked. "That, or she told you she is with child."

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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Ben looked up at Aldous, eyes wide with surprise that he'd figured it out so easily. It certainly hadn't been anything Ben had been expecting, but then — Aldous was missing some of the context that made it so surprising, of course. Married women got pregnant all the time; that was normal, and expected. Most married couples did not use condoms, or go weeks without sleeping together at all because they happened to be fighting.

His eyes fell back to his glass. He wasn't sure he could answer, but sure his expression had already spoke volumes. He nodded.

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Given that Reuben's face contained none of the joy that one whose financial situation had just dramatically improved, Aldous was forced to conclude, with some dismay, that it was the latter. He sighed again, rubbed the back of his neck, then took a generous drink from his glass.

It was not as though the idea of his siblings procreating bothered him. It was, in essence, November's job, and he loved both of her children dearly. Ben, too, was married; that he hadn't sired a handful of children already would never not fail to come as a surprise. One swallow, however, did not make a summer, and Aldous would not allow his brother to be trapped in a lifetime of misery simply because he had done what husbands did.

"You can be a good father, even a devoted father, without being a devoted husband," Aldous pointed out at last, well aware that he was not speaking from a place of experience on either matter. Still, he liked to think he knew enough of the ways of society, of the world, that he could still hope to guide his brother through this mess. "I hope, though, that you did not...celebrate this news?" he asked pointedly.

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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Ben listened attentively to his brother speak (he had always valued Aldous' advice, even if it might not have been very apparent in his actions), but his composure broke at the last question and he snorted. "Art Pettigrew's way ahead of you on that one," he said, leaning back on the sofa with a sort of reckless feeling; a well, since it's all fucked, anyway atmosphere. He was looking at the ceiling and not at Aldous as he continued. "That was the first thing he said: don't fuck her. Well, the second thing, actually," he said, shaking his head as he remembered. "The first thing was that he didn't think she really was."

He examined the texture of the ceiling. "She wouldn't lie about it," he said after a moment.

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"That does not," the wizard pointed out, "answer my question."

In light of what he had learned of late, Aldous had been forced to conclude there was very little Melody wouldn't do, regardless of what his brother seemed to think on the matter. And besides, trapping a man with a fake pregnancy was certainly a well-known trick—right up there with tricking a man into marriage to hide a pregnancy borne out of wedlock. If the news had been enough to return Reuben to his wife's bed (and Aldous had little doubt that Reuben was easily led by his middle leg), then what was not a true pregnancy before might easily have become one since.

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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Ben rolled his eyes. Everyone, it seemed, thought he was stupid. He supposed he had the reputation for it, but he honestly hadn't been half as promiscuous as everyone always assumed he was. He could count the number of women he'd slept with throughout the course of his entire life on his fingers, and he had been faithful to his wife after marrying her even under the unusual circumstances. Not that it did him much good; Melody still didn't trust him anywhere near other women.

"I didn't," he said, raising his glass for another drink. "I haven't touched her since — the fifth, I think. So if she was lying, it'd be obvious soon enough."

  

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That, at least, was a piece of good news. If she was not expectant, it would become clear soon enough, and every day that Aldous kept his brother here, away from her, made such evidence more reliable. It did not, however, erase the problem at hand.

"Congratulations are in order, then," he offered with a small smile, an olive branch. "I can...understand better your renewed...commitment to your wife, but feel as though I must reiterate my earlier point: one can be a devoted father without being a devoted husband and, indeed, a miserable man is less likely to be a good father."

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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The smile made a world of difference. Ben let out a long breath, and with it much of the tension he'd been holding in his shoulders since this conversation started. If Aldous could pretend to be pleased by the news, or at least recognize that this child was what Ben wanted, then they could have this conversation as teammates rather than as adversaries.

"I don't trust her alone," he admitted. He hadn't been planning on saying this, but now that they'd gotten to this point it seemed the most efficient way through the conversation was just to come clean. "Especially if she feels like she's running out of options. She makes stupid decisions when she panics. Marrying me, for one," he said, shaking his head. He took a small drink to keep his throat from getting too dry as he continued. "That's why I didn't want to leave, the other day. I asked her to go stay with a friend, so I think she's okay now, but... I'm going to stay until the baby's born," he said firmly. "After that, if things are still the way they have been, I can get out. But I don't want to bring up London until that. And she can't know that I told you. About the night we eloped."

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He remained silent for a long moment. He could not exactly know how it felt to be in his brother's predicament; indeed, he hoped he never would. Even imagining seemed decidedly short of the mark. It was not the first time Aldous had felt inadequately prepared to counsel his brother, but probably the first time that such a feeling was merited. He did not care for it.

"You will need a midwife," he said at last, his voice conveying a bit more confidence than he felt, "to ensure everything is progressing as it should, for both Mrs. Crouch's sake and that of the babe. Perhaps, when you feel comfortable telling her, you might ask November for recommendations; both of her pregnancies, to the best of my knowledge, went quite swimmingly. You'll need a nurse as well, once the child is born, though obviously bachelor lodgings will no longer suit and you will likely have to invest in a larger second residence."

  

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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Aldous seemed quite confident that there would eventually be a second residence, despite Ben's use of the word if, but Ben could hardly blame him. Given everything Aldous knew, and how recently he had learned it, he had no reason to believe anything would change in the next eight months. Why should he believe that Ben was even capable of loving Melody, knowing what he did? It wasn't something that made sense, Ben knew that, so he knew better than to try and explain it. It would only set Aldous to wondering about love potions again, which would earn him more time here. He had a suitable excuse for his hesitation to leave the other day, and Aldous appeared to have taken it at face value. Ben assumed, too, that the fact he hadn't said anything in response about the circumstances under which they'd married meant he would keep Ben's secret, at least for a while.

"Yeah," he agreed, with a vague nod. "I don't know when people normally do these things. Tell people, hire people. It's still early. A month in." Ben knew exactly which occasion had resulted in the pregnancy, because they'd been using protection on all the other occasions, but Aldous could make his own assumptions about why the timeline was so precise. Maybe he'd believe that they hadn't been sleeping together, generally, but given Ben's reputation probably not.

  

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Then it may not come to fruition. Though, logically, Aldous knew this, given that Reuben seemed rather invested (it was endearing, really), he thought it imprudent to say aloud.

Instead, he offered, "In the intervening months you are, of course, welcome here any time. As is," Aldous paused here, rather hesitant, "Mrs. Crouch."

He did not have to like her now, and indeed had a hard time imagining he would at any point in the future, but his brother's wife currently had collateral.

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— Aldous walks with a cane and pronounced limp as the result of a splinching accident. —

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