[Texas Rangers 05] - Texas Vendetta by Elmer Kelton

spring plantin’.”
    Rusty gradually warmed to the idea. “I could turn the milk cow and her calf out together. I could take the chickens over to Shanty so the coyotes don’t get them.”
    Perhaps later, when more healing time had passed, Andy could talk Rusty into traveling up north to visit the Monahans. If he spent time close to Alice, he might finally see what everybody around him already knew.
     
     
    Bethel Brackett stood on the porch watching as Andy and Rusty dismounted in front of her house. She spoke first to Rusty, then to Andy. “Going back to camp already? I hoped you might stay awhile longer.”
    Andy said, “It’s time I reported for duty. Just came to see about Farley so I’ll know what to tell the captain.”
    He caught a moment’s disappointed look before she hid it. She said, “Farley’s stubborn and hard to get along with, but he always was. He’s raisin’ a ruckus about wantin’ to go back to camp.”
    “He can’t be ready yet.”
    “No, but he thinks he is. Nothing counts with him except what he thinks.”
    “What about Flora Landon and her daddy?”
    “They’re still here. Farley actually smiles when Flora comes into his room. I think he’s a little taken with her.”
    Guess he’s got some human feelings after all, Andy thought. “Reckon they know where Jayce is at?”
    “I make it a point not to ask questions. If anybody comes around hunting for information, I won’t have to lie to them.” She managed a weak smile. “You-all are not in too much of a hurry to stay and eat dinner with us, are you?”
    Rusty took the decision out of Andy’s hands. “We’d be much obliged.”
    That was how it had always been, Andy thought. He never got to make a decision of his own unless he was by himself. He was always in Rusty’s shadow, or someone else’s.
    He remembered how to reach Farley’s room, but he chose to follow Bethel anyway. He enjoyed looking at her, though he would not tell her so, or Rusty.
    Farley lay on his bed, atop the covers. Pale, unshaven, he was fully dressed, even to his boots. His shirt was only partially buttoned because of a bulky bandage wrapped around his ribs. He grunted at the visitors, either a halfhearted greeting or a dismissal. He had always lacked confidence in Andy, and he had only a strained tolerance for Rusty. Both had gotten in his way more than once.
    Farley said, “I hope you’re ready to ride, because I sure am. I may just beat you back to camp.”
    Andy saw worry in Bethel’s eyes. She said, “You wouldn’t get ten miles from home before you fell off of your horse. You’d lie there and bleed to death.”
    Farley said, “I got hurt worse than this in a skirmish with the Yankees and still rode thirty miles before dark.”
    Bethel shrugged. “How can you talk sense to a man like that?”
    Andy saw no reason to tell her it was useless to try. She knew it better than he did. But he sensed that Farley understood the truth. Despite his blustering, he was not ready to ride, nor would he be for a while.
    Rusty said, “Farley, I hear you and Andy turned back a mob.”
    Farley grunted. “It was a damn-fool thing to do, seein’ as the man they was after had already lit out.”
    “You didn’t know that at the time.”
    “This Badger Boy of yours was all set to try it by himself. When he takes it in his head to do somethin’, you couldn’t beat it out of him with a club.”
    Rusty nodded. “I’ve got no quarrel with that.”
    “Fool kid could’ve got us both killed.” Farley glowered at Andy. “Look what happened to me. I deserve it for takin’ pity on him.”
    Rusty said, “You got it for doin’ the right thing.”
    “That Jayce Landon is a knot-headed idiot. The only reason I’d give a damn what happens to him is that he’s got a wife who ought to’ve done better for herself. And a goodhearted daddy-in-law. Do you know he’s out in the field right now, workin’ like a hired hand? And her with him.”
    Andy took that for a