The Saltwater Workshop
After weeks away attending to her late brother's timber estate in inland Spokane, master glass artisan Nora Vance returns to Port Townsend only to find her seaside cottage converted into an unauthorized luxury retreat and her studio stripped clean. Facing those who mistook her quiet grief for weakness, Nora relies on precise records, local harbor law, and quiet resolve to reclaim her home and legacy.
Fictional story. Contains themes of family betrayal, property disputes, financial deception, and emotional conflict.Chapter 1: The Cold Welcome at Saltwater Cove
Nora Vance drove her salt-crusted estate wagon up the winding timber road overlooking Puget Sound. She had spent twenty-eight exhausting days in inland Spokane settling the affairs of her late younger brother, Julian. Her hands still bore the stiffness of moving stacks of dry pine logs and clearing decades of dusty land deeds from Julian's cabin. All she wanted was to step into her cedar-shingled seaside cottage in Port Townsend, light the potbelly stove in her stained-glass restoration studio, and let the rhythmic sound of incoming tides wash away her quiet grief.
Instead, when she pulled into the gravel driveway of Saltwater Cove, her headlight beams caught a brass valet stand positioned exactly where her lavender garden used to bloom.