Branglers
This was written for the Murdoch-Jelly challenge on the Yahoo group Lancer_Writers. The challenge was to write a 1,500 to 2,000 word story featuring Murdoch, Jelly or both.
***
"Jelly?" Murdoch called, pounding on the door. "Jelly!"
"I ain't deaf," the hired man grumbled. "Hold your horses, I'm coming." Jelly swung open the door and looked at his boss, speechless.
"What in tarnation happened to you?" Jelly asked, looking him over in the lamplight. Murdoch's shirt was tattered and filthy and his eye was swelling shut. There was a bruise on his chin.
"Never mind that right now," Murdoch growled. "Can you patch me up a bit and get me a change of clothes without letting on to the boys or Teresa?"
Jelly rubbed his whiskery chin. "Reckon I can," he said. "Not sure I ought to."
"Why not?" Murdoch said. "You've helped Johnny sneak by me a few times, haven't you?"
"That's different," Jelly said.
"It sure is," Murdoch agreed, his voice taking on a sharp edge. "I'm his father."
Jelly still hesitated and Murdoch started to get mad. "Jelly!"
"Oh, come on in, before you fall in," Jelly said. "Sit down."
Murdoch sat down on Jelly's bunk, while the hired man tilted his jaw up.
"You're going to have a shiner," he said. "Ain't you a little old to be brawling, Boss?"
"I fell," Murdoch said with dignity.
"Oh, yeah?" Jelly said, picking up Murdoch's hand. "You bruise your knuckles when you fell, Boss?"
"No, that was afterwards _ never mind. Jelly, just get me some clothes, please," Murdoch said. "And don't tell the boys or Teresa!"
Jelly shook his head and headed for the house. He returned to find the big rancher dozing off.
"Did they see you?" Murdoch asked, opening his good eye.
"Course not," Jelly said. "You want some liniment?"
"I'm not a horse," Murdoch said indignantly.
"Suit yourself," Jelly said. "But you're going to be awful stiff in the morning."
Murdoch unbuttoned his shirt without another word.
"Thanks, Jelly," he said when the other man had cleaned up his cuts and scrapes and rubbed some liniment on his aching back. "I do feel better."
"You're welcome," Jelly said, pouring him a cup of coffee and adding a generous shot of whiskey. "You going to tell me what this is all about, Boss? I thought you were going to the cattlemen's association meeting tonight."
"I did," Murdoch said, sipping his drink.
"And you got into a fight there?"
"Wade Martin was there," Murdoch said.
"That loudmouth," Jelly said. "Huh. What did he say?"
"Too much," Murdoch said.
"Seems to me I heard you tell Scott and Johnny to ignore him and his hands," Jelly said. "In fact, you told Johnny last week that he'd be mucking out the barns for a month if he got into another brangle with Martin's hands.
Murdoch's face tightened. "Well, this was different," he said.
"How?" Jelly asked.
"This was Martin himself," Murdoch said.
"What did he say?" Jelly asked.
Murdoch's neck turned red. "I don't want to discuss it," he said.
"Ya don't think that everyone in the valley ain't going to hear about it?" Jelly asked. "Two of the biggest ranchers around, brawling at the cattlemen's association meeting?"
Murdoch sighed. "Okay, so people are going talk about the fight. But no one else heard what started it."
"Won't Martin say?"
"I don't think he's going to have anything to say for quite a while," Murdoch said, with satisfaction. "I'm pretty sure I broke that bastard's jaw."
Jelly tipped some more whiskey into Murdoch's mug. "Last Saturday night, in the saloon, one of Martin's hands said something to Johnny about his mama," he volunteered.
Murdoch paused. "Is that what that fight was about?" he said slowly. He'd bailed both of his sons out of jail Sunday morning and paid the bill for the damage. He wasn't happy about it, and he had said so, at length and full volume.
"Nope," Jelly said. "Scott wanted to, but he didn't hit him then. Johnny pulled him back."
"Wait a minute," Murdoch said. "Johnny pulled Scott back? After one of the Martin hands said something about Johnny's mother?"
"Yup," Jelly said.
"Then what happened?" Murdoch asked.
"Well, then one of them Martin hands said something about Scott's mother," Jelly said. "And, that time, Scott pulled Johnny back."
Murdoch looked at him, puzzled. "So, just how did that fight get started?" he asked curiously.
"Someone passed a remark about you," Jelly said simply. "And both of the boys went after him."
Murdoch stared at him.
"They got into that fight over something someone said about me?" he said.
"Yup," Jelly said.
"That's ridiculous," Murdoch said. "It doesn't matter what Martin or his hands say about me."
Jelly shrugged. "Seems to me it ain't much different," he observed.
"Different from what?"
"It ain't much different from whatever it was that Wade Martin said to you tonight about your boys," Jelly said. "Just before you hit him."
THE END
Whistle, June 2004