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

9 January, 1371. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten

Herleve looked as bewildered speaking the words as Celia felt listening to them.

"Your Majesty, I just spoke with My Lady, Mother of the King. She requests your presence tomorrow morning, to share tea in her apartments."

"She wants…tea? What? Honestly, what?" Celia was flabbergasted. "Since when does that woman want to drink tea and with me, no less? And since when does she request anything at all from me?"

The truth was swift as it hit her between the eyes.

She requests because she can no longer just order me to her rooms. I outrank her now. Nobody bar one orders the queen around.

"Did she tell you why she wants to see me, Herleve?" Celia asked. "This is all very unusual."

The maid shook her head. "Her Maj- I mean, My Lady didn't give me a reason and I didn't dare ask her for one. She was just very insistent I pass the message on to you."

Twist of Fate