TO CATCH A WOLF By Susan Krinard

Morgan swallowed and looked toward the mountains. Harry reached out a hand, hesitated, and let it come to rest on Morgan’s shoulder. It felt curious, that touch, after Athena’s. Too close, too intimate, like that of kin. Family.

A father’s touch.

“You do not want to be my father,” he said, holding absolutely still, afraid of his own terror. “Do you know what happened to my real father, Harry?” He lifted his hands. “I killed him. I killed him with these two hands.”

Chapter 17

“I don’t believe it,” Caitlin said. “Not for a moment.” Ulysses looked at her gravely and met Harry’s gaze. They sat, the three of them, in Caitlin’s room while the storm raged through its third day outside the sturdy walls of the ranch house. The wind howled no more fiercely than Morgan had done every night since Niall’s arrival. No one had seen Morgan since Harry’s brief conversation with him, but he had not gone. The howls proved as much.

Caitlin knew that Harry had waited to tell her and Ulysses Morgan’s terrible revelation, working himself into a dither over how much to share. In the end, he had been unable to keep it to himself. It was not in his nature to suffer alone, or let others suffer likewise. His heart was too big to hide in a corner.

All the troupers had been hiding, in one way or another, while Niall remained at Long Park. He avoided them, and Athena kept to her room—Niall’s room, given to her after the incident with Morgan—but the atmosphere felt as poisonous as the smoke belching from one of those horrid Denver smelters. Ulysses had learned, from listening to maids who hardly noticed his existence, that Athena was to return to Denver with Niall as soon as the weather permitted. She was not to see Morgan again, and she was to keep apart from the circus folk.

A devil’s bargain, Caitlin thought. Niall had demanded her obedience in exchange for the safety of the circus—and perhaps of the man she loved. That she loved Morgan, Caitlin had no doubt. Just as she knew Morgan could not live without her.

“No,” she repeated firmly. “Morgan could not have killed his own father. Didn’t he say anything else, Harry?”

The old man’s face sagged as if he had lost several pounds in as many days. “No. He left me with that, and walked away. As if he… wanted me to think the worst.”

“He lives under the weight of an intolerable burden,” Ulysses said quietly. “Intolerable enough to make him avoid the company of other people—as you observed yourself many times, Firefly. He punishes himself.”

“For murder?” Caitlin snorted. “No. There must be much more to the story. Did he talk to you, Uly? You must tell us.”

Ulysses only looked away, avoiding the question. Caitlin longed to shake him. “You’re hiding something, I know it. But I also know Morgan is not a killer. I would feel it if he were.”

“There are times when feelings are inadequate.”

“And sometimes they are all we have,” Harry said. “If he had something to do with his father’s death, there must have been a very good reason.”

“I agree,” Uly said. “But I am at a loss as to how to assist him.”

“The help he needs most is with Athena—and Niall,” Caitlin said.

“Interference now might make matters worse,” Uly said. “Morgan must recognize the danger of confronting Munroe directly.”

“And what of you, Firefly?” Harry asked gently.

She knew what he was asking but chose to pretend otherwise. “I know there must be a way of thwarting Niall,” she said. “He needs to be distracted until Athena finds a means of outwitting him. With a little encouragement…”

“I don’t like the look on your face, Firefly,” Harry said.

“Niall is as dangerous as Morgan,” Ulysses cautioned. “You have seen that for yourself.”

“And you’ve repeatedly warned me to take care, like an old grandmother,” Caitlin said with a laugh. “Did you think I really swooned up in Athena’s room?”

Ulysses and Morgan exchanged glances. Harry assumed a stern expression ill-suited to his jolly St. Nicholas features.

“We are here on Munroe’s sufferance,” he said. “Athena would never allow any harm to come to us, but if she chooses to defy her brother, he may eject us forthwith.” He met Caitlin’s eyes. “I won’t see us cast out, Firefly, as long as we are capable of leaving of our own free will. Nor will I allow you to place yourself in jeopardy, of body or of soul. I will give orders for the troupers to prepare to depart as soon as the storm passes.”

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