jared had concurred-for entirely different reasons-in jamie 's proposal that we widen the scope of jared 's usual business entertaining , so that the french nobility and the heads of the wealthy banking families might beat a path to our door , there to be seduced and cozened with rhenish wine , good talk , fine entertainment , and large quantities of the good scotch whisky that murtagh had spent the last two weeks shepherding across the channel and overland to our cellars .