William and Sallie had three daughters and one son, she’s certain of that. Annabelle and her dad were descendants of the youngest girl, Abbie, who never married but bore three sons. Annabelle couldn’t remember what ever became of Grandma Abbie’s younger brother, rather great, great, great Grandma Abbie’s younger brother.
William was told his great-great-great-great aunt, Annie’s mother, Lucy, dictated the original cookie recipe to then seven-year-old Annie at Christmastime in 1860. Lucy was owned by Augustine Wilson, a wedding gift from her husband Henry. Lucy managed the Wilson’s kitchen help and oversaw preparation and serving of their family meals.
Lucy loved to bake. She began baking cookies for the Cherry Grove Plantation children at Christmas the year her daughter Annie turned two years old. The next year, Lucy mentioned to her husband Lonny that she wished she could shape the cookies like evergreen trees and Moravian stars for the children during the holidays, but it would take too long to shape them all by hand. Lonny, a talented tinsmith, gave Lucy a gift of handcrafted metal cookie cutters that year for Christmas – the tree and star she wanted, plus boy and girl shaped ones.
In the years that followed, Lucy made ginger cookies in these various shapes as gifts for Annie and all of the Cherry Grove children, as well as the Wilson children.
When the War ended in 1865, Lucy stayed on with the Wilsons as a nursemaid and domestic. She continued to bake ginger cookies, with Annie’s help, at Christmastime for the children, and throughout the year for the bakery in Salem.
Lucy passed away in the spring of 1866; Lonny died in March of the following year, leaving Annie orphaned at age 13.
Annie began riding to the bakery in Salem with Mr. Wilson the year her father died.
***
Unlike Conrad, who was orphaned as a toddler, Annabelle is grateful to have known her family’s ancestry since her childhood, at least on her father’s side, going back four generations. Conrad’s mother’s family disowned him at birth.
Although the gaps in their shared history is troublesome for Annabelle, she realizes whatever their distant relation might be is irrelevant; however, it’s emotionally perplexing. Were they fifth cousins? And, if so, on whose side, Conrad’s dad’s or mom’s? The two are stuck in limbo between family and potential romance, making him a distraction from her cookie quest, although highly related to it, and totally worth the effort.
Annabelle texts Conrad: meet me in old salem at 4?
Conrad texts back: sure
***