So here we are in Red Crow State Forest, ending where we began, as so many stories do. Maybe you’re wondering what happened after Rafe and Jeremy got their horses home, but that’s a story for another day.
And I have a kingdom to run.
What? Surely you guessed by now it’s me. Remember the fairy-tale recipe? One ingredient in fairy tales is the royal disguised as a nobody. And who’s a bigger nobody than a storyteller?
My sister, bless her heart, who wasted her coronation gift on a pencil of all things, better like this story. I did, after all, write it for her.
And in case anyone’s wondering how I wrote this book even though I wasn’t there for everything?
Well, turns out it was a magic pencil. But you don’t really need a magic pencil to write a magic book. All books are magic. An object that can take you to another world without even leaving your room? A story written by a stranger and yet it seems they wrote it just for you or to you? Loving and hating people made out of ink and paper, not flesh and blood? Yes, books are magic. Maybe even the strongest magic there is.
Of course, some readers might still be wondering what Shanandoah is and how it came to be. I still don’t know. I can only guess, but I think someone saw what was about to happen to me, and they said, “No. Not this time.” My sister saved a rat. My prince saved a robin. How many times do we walk past some living creature in need and keep walking? Most days. And then, one day…you can’t walk away. Maybe someone said, “Not on my watch. Maybe yesterday, but not today. Not this girl.”
Or, as they said at my sister’s old vet clinic, “You can’t save them all, but today we will save one.”
Whoever saved me, thank you.
Ah, well, now the story’s over, so I’m supposed to say, “And they all lived happily ever after.” That’s how fairy tales end, and this is a fairy tale.
Except it doesn’t feel that happy without Rafe and Jeremy here. There are two empty seats at my table, and my sister spends her few free hours in the library trying to find a way to bring them back. And not a day passes, Aurora tells me, that Rafe and Jeremy don’t think of us and long to return to Shanandoah.
And since fairy tales have happy endings, this means one of two things.
Either this isn’t a fairy tale…
Or it’s only the beginning.
THE END?
Golden AppleChristmas CakeRecipe(modified for this world)Ingredients
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup applesauce made from Shanandoah Golden Sun apples (you may substitute applesauce made from Golden Delicious apples from West Virginia)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray a 9-inch round baking pan with nonstick spray or grease it with oil.
Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl.
Mix oil, brown sugar, and applesauce in another bowl.
Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture just until incorporated; don’t overmix.
Pour into the pan and spread evenly.
Bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes, then invert the pan and the cake will release.
Cool completely before frosting.
Cream Cheese FrostingThis recipe will make enough to frost a two-layer cake; make multiple batches to frost cakes with more layers. If the cake is being made for a Christmas wedding, make three layers.Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, brick, not tub, at room temperature but not too soft
4 cups soft icing sugar/powdered sugar, sifted (sift after measuring)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
