Brianna and Roger exchanged a long look, and I felt a twinge of the heart. I hadn’t thought of that, but he was right. Snow-choked passes cut off the high mountains from the low country as effectively as a thousand-foot stone wall.

Brianna was nodding, though.

“We’ll do it,” she said simply.

“We?” said Roger, but he smiled.

“Are ye sure?” Jamie asked, and I saw the fingers of his right hand flutter briefly at the edge of the table.

“If you’re going to buy a lot of guns, you probably need to get your gold and whisky to the coast,” Bree pointed out reasonably. “Lord John’s offering me an assured safe-conduct pass—and armed escort, if I want it, which I don’t—to go there.” She lifted a shoulder. “What could be easier?”

Jamie lifted a brow. So did Roger.

“What?” she demanded, looking from one to the other. Jamie made a slight Scottish noise and looked away. Roger drew a deep breath as though about to speak, then let it out again.

“Ye’re thinking of hiding six casks of whisky and five hundred pounds in gold in your wee box of paints?” Jamie said.

“Under the noses of your armed guards,” Roger added, “who will presumably be British soldiers, charged, among other things, with the arrest of, of—”

“Moonshiners,” I said.

Jamie raised his other brow.

“Really,” I said. “The notion being that people with illegal stills operate them largely at night, I suppose.”

“Well, I do have a plan,” Brianna said, with some asperity. “I’m going to take the kids with me.”

“Wow!” said Jemmy. Amanda, having no idea what was being discussed, loyally chirped “Wow” as well, which made Fanny and Germain laugh.

Jamie said something under his breath in Gaelic. Roger didn’t say it, but might as well have had the words “God help us all” tattooed on his forehead. I felt similarly, but for once, I thought I’d concealed my sentiments better than the men, who weren’t trying to conceal theirs at all. I wiped my face with a towel, and started slicing the apple-and-raisin pie for dessert.

“Possibly there are a few refinements that could be added,” I said, as soothingly as possible, my back safely turned. “Why don’t we talk about it when the children are in bed.”

WE’D SHOOED ALL the children upstairs to bed and Jamie had brought down a bottle of the JFS. Aged seven years in sherry casks, it may not have been quite worth its weight in gold, but it was still an invaluable aid to conferences with a strong potential for going sideways.

He poured each of us a large tot and, sitting down himself, raised a hand for silence while he took a mouthful, held it for a long moment, then swallowed and sighed.

“All right,” he said, lowering his hand. “What is it ye have in mind, then, mo nighean ruadh?”