Blue Bells of Scotland: Book One of the Blue Bells Trilogy by Laura Vosika Page B

said. "My head is pounding."
    "Drank ye too much ale?" she asked suspiciously. She turned to the girl behind her. "What gibberish is he speaking? It sounds like some drunken form of the Sassenach tongue."
    Shawn stared. She was speaking Gaelic! Maybe it was the whiskey that made it sound so strange. He squeezed his eyes tight and opened them again, sure now that he was awake, and yet she was speaking Gaelic! These people, he thought for the second time this short morning, really needed to join the real world. He laughed out loud. The girl gave a suspicious stare. "'Tis hardly funny. My father and all the lords await. Did ye drink more?"
    He switched to the Gaelic of his camp days and his grandmother. "What's it to you? Listen, I need a lift...."
    "He speaks strangely, my lady." The quieter girl cocked her head at him. "And he seems not to recognize ye."
    "D' ye not?" The redhead frowned.
    "Should I?" he asked.
    Her face softened. "'S mise, Allene." He struggled to make out words. It's me, Allene. "Is it your head?" She reached for his hand. It wasn't what he'd expected. But what the hell. Even half-drunk, he recognized an opportunity. He pulled her down, tipping her off balance. Their lips met. She softened for just a second, then yanked back.
    "You!" She spun to the girl behind her, grabbed the bucket, and doused him thoroughly with cold water. "Ye are drunk! I told ye not to!"
    Shawn gasped and spluttered, shaking his hands and head, and scrambled to his feet. Water dripped liberally from his eyes, hair, and nose. The icy water chilled him down to his bones and brain. He gasped sharply for breath, glaring. "What the hell was that for!" he demanded. He had not forgotten how to swear in Gaelic.
    Behind the fiery girl, the more docile one gasped. "D' ye no be talking to my lady like that!" Her words belied her mild voice.
    Shawn stared in fascination, sifting words from her garbled dialect as he wiped water from his eyes. What an actress! She sounded truly shocked, as if she'd never heard the word before. "That's good," he said. He switched back to English, not wanting to play their silly game. "Sorry about your dad and the lords, but...."
    "Stop this gibberish," the girl with the fiery hair said.
    Shawn sighed in irritation and repeated himself in Gaelic.
    "What are you wearing?" interrupted the princess, as Shawn was already thinking of her. "That is not our plaid! That is MacDougall's!"
    Shawn glanced down at the tunic, and the plaid hanging drunkenly off one shoulder. "Oh, this. Yeah, I just picked this up for kicks. Wanted to feel a little authentic, you know. Oh, I get it. You thought I was...." He groped for a Gaelic word and could think of none. He substituted English. "You thought I was one of the reenactors."
    "You're drunk," the girl snapped. "You make no sense. I've no idea what a...a re-en …what that is. My father will not like to see you wearing his enemy's plaid. You may in your drunken state find it good jest, but I assure you, he will not!"
    "This is enough." Shawn switched back to English. She stared at him in such confusion that he wondered if maybe she was one of those from the far west who spoke only Gaelic. He pushed himself to his feet, picking up the cloak. "Is this yours?" he asked, giving her the courtesy of her native tongue. "Thanks for the loan, even if you did follow it up with a bucket of cold water. There must be someone here with a car."
    "Would that I had another bucket of water!" the girl said in agitation. "What were ye thinking to get drunk at such a time!"
    Behind her, the lady in waiting spoke mildly. "My lady, however upset ye are, he must be rid of that plaid before your father sees it."
    Lady Allene pursed her lips. "Cover the plaid with that cloak. Go to your room immediately and change. And in the name of the Good Lord Jesus, I pray thee never get this drunk again. You are addled!"
    "I told you, I'm not one of the reenactors. I have no idea what room you mean. My things are in