“Go,” he told her, privately relieved at the interruption. “I will stay here to meet the campers.”
“Are you sure?” Leonie drew him to one side, lowering her voice. “I didn’t mean to throw you in the deep end like this.”
“I will be fine.” Even in his distracted state, he’d managed to take in enough of the counselor training to know what to do. “The children know their pack assignments. I only need to wait for them to arrive and then take them to the dining hall for snacks and the director’s welcoming speech.”
“I’ll join you as soon as I can. And most of the kids in our group have been coming here for years. I’m sure they won’t be any trouble.” Leonie hurried away, calling back over her shoulder, “Kids! Help Shan welcome the new campers, okay?”
The hair on the back of his neck prickled. He turned, and discovered a row of young faces beaming up at him.
At least, four of them were beaming. The fifth very much was not.
“Hiiiiiiii, Shaaaaan,” Estelle said in sweet, sing-song tones. “I didn’t know you were going to be a counselor this year.”
Neither did I.“It was a last-minute appointment.”
From the way Estelle beamed at him, he might as well have handed her a free puppy. “That’sgreat.”
“That you’re one of our counselors, that is,” Archie added, also beaming ear-to-ear.
This was clearly not a sentiment universally shared by the entire group. Rufus lurked behind the other kids, shoulders up around his ears and mouth set in a tight, flat line.
Still, at least Rufus’s wariness was understandable. The apparent delight of the other children, less so. Shan was notused to people being quite this enthusiastic about his presence. Or at all enthusiastic, for that matter.
The children were probably just excited about the start of camp. Which reminded him of Leonie’s concerns about gossip. Perhaps he could help her in another small way.
“I’m glad to have an opportunity to speak with you in private, before the rest of the pack arrives,” he said to the kids. “I would appreciate it if you did not share the story of what you saw in the woods with any of the other campers. It might frighten them.”
“Of course,” Finley agreed, a bittooreadily. If anything, he seemed rather relieved by the request. “Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone.”
“We don’t need to,” Archie said, as though this should have been obvious. “Not now we’ve told you.”
Shan frowned. The boy’s statement had the sweetness of truth, but it was complex, like dark chocolate over cherries. Not a simple truth at all. “Me?”
Beth kicked Archie’s ankle. “He just means we only wanted to make sure the camp staff knew about the thing in the woods, sir.”
“So that someone could investigate.” Estelle fixed him with big, innocent eyes; one pale blue, the other deep green. “Someoneisgoing to investigate, right?”
“Estelle!” Beth hissed.
His sense of disquiet deepened. Admittedly, he had not been particularly subtle in his line of questioning earlier, and by all accounts they were bright children. It wouldn’t take an enormous leap of logic for them to deduce that the oddly dressed stranger with an unusual interest in ghost stories might be here to do more than just supervise singsongs around the campfire.
And yet… the flavors didn’t make sense. Everything was that strange, bittersweet mix of truth and falsehood. Beth hadn’t been lying when she’d said they’d wanted the adults to know about the so-called ghost sighting. But the wordonlyhad carried a sour twist, like bitter lemon. That had been a lie, though not a selfish one.
Something strange is going on here.
There was no time to question the children about it now. Groups of campers started to stream into the central square, shouting and jostling as they hunted for their assigned counselors. The rest of his own pack would be here any moment.
“Yes, the director asked me to look into the matter,” he said, his thoughts as confused as the growing clamor filling the air. “He’s anxious to ensure there is no danger to the camp.”
Rufus’s head jerked up. He caught a brief flash of a piercing, startled stare before the boy looked away again, hiding his face.
Shan silently cursed himself. Rufus knew full well that the senior staff were aware the other campers were lying through their teeth about the so-called ghost sighting. And now, he also knew that they still thought there might be some other genuine threat. It was somewhat disconcerting to be on the receiving end of his own ability for once.
“But I would ask you to keep that to yourself as well,” he said, picking his words with care. “Leonie is worried that if rumors start flying around, it could cause a panic.”
“We don’t want to cause any problems for the camp,” Beth said fervently, the statement tasting of ripe peaches. “We won’t breathe a single word, sir.”
Estelle mimed zipping her lips. “Your secret is safe with us.”
