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

30 August, 1370. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten

Celia heard her presence chamber doors being unlocked from the outside. A moment later, Rae walked into the room with a silver tray in her hands.

Celia looked up from fabric spread over her lap and smiled at the maid. "Thank you. Just put it down on that table over there. I'll eat shortly."

Rae did as she was told, but didn't leave. Instead, she stood in the middle of the room, fidgeting.

"Is something wrong?" Celia asked her.

"I feel terrible that you've been locked away like this, my lady!" the maid burst out. "It's wrong what the queen is doing!"

"Thank you. I appreciate your support. But why do you look so guilt ridden, Rae?"

"Because I was the one that lead her into your bedchamber that morning."

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