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

After carefully setting aside the letter, Celia could feel herself starting to nod off. She was worried about falling asleep with Aron next to her, so she leaned over and gently placed him back in the cradle. Then she lay back against the headboard and closed her eyes, one arm around Gabriel who was curled up on her lap like a kitten.

She let her mind start slowly drifting off. Had she ever felt so at peace?

That peace was determined to not last long at all. There was a knock at the door that made her eyes pop open.

Maura and Sarai then swept into the bedchamber in a flurry of swishing skirts and clicking beads.

Celia raised her eyebrows at the interruption. "The correct thing to do is wait until you're given permission to enter, instead of just barging in right after you knock."

Sarai tried to look wounded. "There's no need to be so haughty, sister. I'm merely here to meet my new nephew."

Set Up to Fail