Gabrielle_Johnson_6482

“You must bear a child, Celia. what good is a woman who isn’t a mother? What good is an empty womb?”

“Especially when it’s a foreign womb, like yours…”

It’s not an easy life when you’re watched month after month, when all the blame is placed at your feet for your young husband having no heir. 

Celia Devon Tralhamir, Crown Princess of Havietten, waits every month with hope mingled with fear. 

A child will secure her future. But it will also bind her for life to a husband she neither loves or respects, who refuses to see her abilities. Is that what she wants?

Is she content to prioritise security over happiness, and be a wordless decorative vessel all her life?

Or is she brave enough to try to forge her own path and seize fulfilment on her own terms? Even in a society that cannot recognise individual brilliance in a mere woman.

A sequel to the WEBNOVEL book “Earning the Love of a Princess”, this novel follows another woman born into the Royal House of Devon, trying to fight the confines that threaten to stifle her happiness.

The Loneliest Ballad

25 January, 1369. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten.

Celia knew what day it was before she'd even opened her eyes. She felt too tired to face the world.

It had been almost a week since she'd last spoken with Lucas. She was still too ashamed to face him after that evening when he'd been forced to hide in her dressing room.

Instead, she hid like a coward in her apartments all day, only emerging when she had to accompany Tobin to dinner. She'd sit at the high table and stare straight ahead, refusing to speak or make eye contact with anyone.

It was also the fifth morning in a row when she'd woken up feeling like she was about to vomit.

So far, she'd managed to avoid that. She'd just stay quietly in bed, breathing slowly and willing the nausea to fade away. She'd lie as still as a marble statue and focus on anything she could think of - the chirping of the dawn's first birds, the sound of her breathing. Even Tobin's snoring was something to listen to.

Dead Inside