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

20 March, 1369. Magdaline Castle, Islia.

Celia sat listlessly in the plush velvet window seat in her mother's bedchamber, several soft pillows tucked behind her back. She was wrapped in one of Queen Violet's own lavish robes, stitched with gold thread and trimmed in sable fur.

She'd slept in the queen's bed the night before , which had been a great comfort. Her mother had held her twitching, shaking body for hours and whispered reassurances as Celia had drifted between sleep and tears.

She'd woken up that morning grateful to be in her mother's apartments, where no one would disturb her. There was no risk of her own maids flitting around her or her ladies-in-waiting arriving unannounced. The only Haviettenese allowed to set foot in the queen's quarters was Sabine.

Apart from Elspeth occasionally checking if she needed anything, she'd been left to her own thoughts. Violet had promised to return and see her once a luncheon she was hosting was over.

Women’s Business