Best to give them some space for now,Conleth decided.He was all too aware that Archie’s tolerance of him was grudging at best. He could only hope he’d be able to change that with time.
The other kids more than made up for Archie’s lack of enthusiasm. They were full of pride, falling over each other to show off their hard work. Conleth duly admired every detail,from the jam jar full of wilting daisies to the paper napkins folded into what were apparently meant to be doves (they looked more like rabid pterodactyls to his eye, but it was the thought that counted).
“You put a lot of thought into this,” he said, genuinely touched. “I hope you haven’t tired yourselves out setting it all up. We still have a full day of activities on the schedule.”
Nancy surveyed him with a critical eye. “Are you sure you’re gonna be up for that? You look kind of exhausted yourself.”
“Yeah, you do,” Estelle agreed, her innocent tone at odds with her all-too-knowing smirk. “Didn’t you get any sleep last night, Conleth?”
“Oh my gold.” Ignatius put his hands over his ears. “I amnotlistening to this. As far as I’m concerned, he was up all night filling in spreadsheets.”
“Did you like Uncle Conleth’s house, Paige?” Beth said loudly, sweeping the other kids with acut-it-out-right-nowkind of glare. “That’s where you went, right?”
Paige went pink to the ears. “Um, yes. It’s very beautiful.”
“My house is further down the same road. And Rufus’ and Estelle’s families live nearby too.” Beth clapped her hands. “Oh! After camp ends and you move in with Uncle Conleth, we can have a big neighborhood welcoming party!”
Archie, who’d only just managed to return to human form, turned straight back into a bear.
“There’s no need to speculate about what might happen after the end of camp,” Conleth said hastily. “Right now, it’s more important to focus on the rest of this summer.”
“We’re still your counselors, before anything else,” Paige said. “It’s our job to make sure you all have a good time here. So let’s all focus on making the most of camp, okay?”
“Hey, that’s right!” Estelle brightened. “Now that you two are together, we can stop being on our best behavior!”
Conleth felt all the blood drain from his face.
Paige had also gone rather white. “You’ve all been…on yourbestbehavior?”
“Well, yeah,” Nancy said, as though this should have been obvious. “Beth made it clear she’d kill anyone who’d put a foot out of line.”
Estelle sighed happily. “Now we can finally have somefun.”
CHAPTER 32
TWO WEEKS LATER
“Do you think we should rescue him?” Paige murmured to Leonie.
“Are you kidding?” the head counselor replied, watching the chaos unfolding in front of them. “I’ve never seen him happier.”
“Conleth, look at me!” Nancy hollered, waving both hands. “Look how high I am!”
“Oh, for the love of—” Abandoning his attempts to coach Beth through some complicated spinning move, Conleth dashed across the gymnasium. “Nancy, I said nobody was to go above shoulder level!”
Nancy reluctantly slid back down the aerial silk. “But you went all the way to the ceiling.”
“I know what I’m doing.” Conleth caught Nancy, returning her to the crash mat. “Practice at ground level, all right?”
“I would love to,” Ignatius said, somewhat muffled. “Would one of you idiots stop snickering and help me down?”
“I’m trying!” Finley tugged futilely at the silks cocooning his friend. “How did you evendothis?”
Conleth darted to reposition a crash mat more squarely under Estelle. “I’ll be there in a moment!”
“Oh, please, take your time.” Ignatius revolved slowly, upside down. “I’ll just be hanging around.”
Leonie chuckled. “Looks like our first aerial silks session is a roaring success. Tell Conleth to come see me later. I want him to run this for the other packs, too.”
