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

Lucas didn't seem flustered by the king's cutting words. He merely nodded in his thoughtful way and said, "I suppose you're right, Sire. Marriage is seen as an alliance between houses, before anything else."

"Precisely. Are you going to tell me your own parents' union was built on some ridiculous notion of love?"

"Well, apparently Papa did love his bride. At least at the start. But judging by some of his later actions, who can really know what my beloved Papa ever thinks?" Vulnerability flashed across Lucas's face for the briefest moment, before vanishing again. "Sadly, I do believe my mother loved him. Even if he never deserved her love."

Leo was quiet for a long moment, then turned to face his daughter again. "I assume your mother knows nothing of this?"

A Most Unexpected Apology