“So?” Flora said. “Why is that weird?”
“Your parents are true mates, right?” Estelle said. At Flora’s nod, she went on, “Imagine that had been them just now, instead of Buck and Honey. What wouldtheyhave done?”
Flora wrinkled her nose. “Gone all sappy and embarrassing.”
“Right.” Estelle screwed up her face in a matching grimace. “My mom and dad areforeverjust standing around with big stupid smiles, staring at each other. I’ve seen your parents do it too, Rufus, and Finley’s.”
Finley heaved a long-suffering sigh. “One time, my dad got so distracted by my mom while he was meant to be cooking, he set fire to the spaghetti. And himself.”
“And that’s my point,” Estelle said. “True mates can’t help acting like total loons when they catch sight of each other. It’s like, their brains stop working or something. But Buck and Honey aren’t like that.”
Rufus nodded.
“They aren’t being embarrassing,” Finley said, speaking Rufus’s telepathic words out loud for Flora’s benefit. “They’re actingembarrassed.”
“Iknow what’s wrong,” Archie butted in from further along the table. He swiveled round on his stool, clay splattered across his t-shirt and face. “They haven’t done it.”
“Done what?” Flora said, looking puzzled.
“You know.” Archie made a brief but explicit gesture. “It.”
(“I really wish,” Buck said mournfully in the background, unnoticed by anyone, “that I couldn’t hear every word of this conversation.”)
Finley’s mouth dropped open in appalled horror. “Archie!”
“Huh.” Estelle furrowed her brow. “I hate to say it, but Archie may have hit on something. That would explain it, all right.”
“Whatwould explain it?” Flora’s voice rose in frustration. “What are you all talking about?”
“Not so loud!” Estelle hissed, flashing a glance at Buck.
He gave no sign of having overheard, apparently engrossed in cleaning tools. An observant person might have noted that he was doing this with rather more noise than was strictly necessary.
Estelle was not that person. Satisfied, she turned back to Flora, lowering her voice. “Archie means that Buck and Honey still don’t have a full mate bond. They haven’t, you know, actuallymated.”
“Ohhhh,” Flora said, enlightenment dawning across her face. Then she frowned. “But they’re always sneaking off together. We’veseenthem. They must have mated.”
Archie shrugged. “Well, maybe they’re doing it wrong.”
(“I amright here.”)
Rufus tapped the table, drawing everyone’s attention. He circled a finger in the air, indicating the whole table, then gestured at the door.
Finley shook his head emphatically. “I don’t think we should be talking about this at all.”
“But we have to talk about it!” Estelle whispered. “This would explain everything. Think about it, Finley.”
“I’d rather not,” Finley said fervently, under the increasingly loud, pointed humming coming from the back corner. “Can we please change the subject?”
“I think Archie may be right too,” Flora said slowly, as though working through a complex mathematical sum in her head. “Buck hasn’t been a shifter for long, after all. Maybe he doesn’t knowhowto mate.”
A loud clatter made them all jump. As one, they looked round guiltily. Buck glared at them over the pile of modeling tools he’d just dropped into the sink.
“That’s it,” Buck announced. He raised his voice. “Honey!”
She looked up from the pottery wheel. “Yes?”
“Hold the fort for a few minutes, will you?” Buck dried his hands on a rag. “I have to go find Leonie.”
