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

31 March, 1371. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten

Celia sat on a seat at the edge of the training ground, enjoying the sun's warmth on her face. She was watching the stately lines of knights on horseback as they practiced a manoeuvre. She bounced an animated Gabriel on her lap, his giggles making her laugh.

The tiny boy's attention was firmly fixed on the knights. He clapped his dimpled hands and cooed with excitement as he watched them move in rows.

Lucas was sitting next to them both with a book of records on his lap. For all intents and purposes, he was briefing his queen on reports from the local village mayors, confirming how the spring sowing season had started.

In reality, it was as close as the three of them could come to spending time together as a family, outside of Gabriel's nursery.

The four of us, Celia corrected herself as she felt a firm little kick in her belly.

Greed