第3章 第1節 町を支配する男
The Man Who Owns the Town
Edwin stood in the of Nora's room, holding her key like a small .
"You must be tired," he said, and his smile was warm and at once.
He did not push past her; he waited, as a man waits who owns the time.
"I am Edwin," he said. "Everyone in Saltmere already knows my name."
Nora's hand tightened on the tape hidden inside her coat.
"You have my key," she said, keeping her voice level.
"The inn belongs to me," he answered. "So, in a way, does the key."
He stepped inside without being asked and looked at her small bag.
"I knew your mother," he said softly. "Marion and I were close."
"Closer than she ever told you, I think."
The words landed like a hand laid gently on her throat.
Nora had come here believing her mother had no past worth hiding.
Now a stranger claimed to own that past, the way he owned the town.
"If you were ," Edwin said, "you would drive home tonight."
"There is nothing here for you but old weather and old ."
"If I left," Nora said, "you would sleep better. That tells me to stay."
Something moved behind his eyes, quick and cold, then vanished.
"You have your mother's tongue," he said. "She used it once too often."
He set the key on the table, a gift that felt like a .
"Saltmere forgets," he said. "It is kinder that way. Let it forget."
Then he was gone, and the swallowed the sound of his shoes.
Nora locked the door, though she no longer believed a lock could help.
She pressed her back to the wood and listened to her own heart.
Whatever her mother had feared, it had a face now, and it smiled.