Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

In this story which is both fairy tale and romance, Keturah becomes lost in the woods and Lord Death appears to take her. She tells a tale that has no ending and bargains with Lord Death to give her 24 hours more of life to find the ending of the tale and share it with him. He agrees. Her tale is of a girl's search for her one true love. The girl is herself. She uses a charm, she uses her considerable baking and sewing skills and still she is not able to decide which of the young men in her town is her one true love. The price of the charm is to request that Lord Death spare the youngest son of the charm's maker. And so Keturah spins yet another tale and makes another bargain and gets another 24 hours to search. Intertwined with her search for love is the coming visit of the King and the threat of plague. Keturah is beautiful, compassionate and able to lead the town's people to transform the town for the king and clean it up to keep the plague away but folks look at her suspiciously and fear her somewhat as they know she has spoken with Death himself. She makes a final bargain with Death to save her town just as she has come to realize who her one true love is.
jdw 11/07