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

24 October, 1370. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten.

Celia walked into her presence chamber after having spent a long, content afternoon in Gabriel's nursery. The tiny boy had recently learned to pull himself to his feet by grabbing onto things, but he wasn't confident enough to do the reverse yet.

The first time she'd seen him get stuck standing and unable to sit down again, she'd laughed until she'd cried. Now, she was happy to sit cross legged on the soft rugs and act as his support. She'd let Gabriel pull himself up and take wobbly steps while clinging to her.

He probably couldn't take quite as many steps as he wanted, because his mother was constantly kissing his gorgeous little face.

What You Choose to Believe