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

Lucas stared at her, stunned silent.

She stared right back. She wasn't at all surprised by his reaction, but she still refused to be the one who broke eye contact.

"Celia, my love." he finally said, sounding faint. "What the fuck are you really saying here?"

"I'm saying that Tobin's no good for the kingdom. He's incapable of being even a mediocre ruler because he can't control his whims. Today it's a new palace he wants, and tomorrow - what then? Insulting our allies? Starting a war just for the fun of it? His rule will be nothing but a lurch from avoidable disaster to avoidable disaster."

"What you're saying though, when you speak of changing out the king, you mean…?"

"Deposing Tobin, yes." Celia verbalised what she knew he couldn't. "Or at least forcing him to abdicate. He'd never go willingly, though. So I think deposing is the only viable way."

Lucas looked genuinely disturbed. "Your mere words are treasonous. Do you realise that?"

A Last Resort