Kissed by the Highland Widow

Iain Kerr has come north to collect. The debt is real, the dead man owed it, and Iain's band needs the cattle before the frost. Ailsa Bane has other ideas. She buried her husband in spring and took over his droving outfit before the ground settled, and she runs it better than he ever did. The ledger says nothing is owed. The ledger is not lying. So Iain stays. He audits her books from a bunk in the byre and finds nothing, and argues with her about grazing, fences, and the fact that she has never once asked him for help. When a rival burns her winter pasture to force a sale, Iain discovers he no longer cares what his band is owed. He cares what she is owed. That is a different debt, and it costs more.