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

16 August, 1371. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten

A muffled groan came from the direction of her bed and made Celia look over. Tobin was still sprawled on top on her sheets, slowly moving his head side to side.

He started to snore again, so she went back to watching the rising sun from the window seat.

The peaceful silence was soon interrupted by another pained groan.

"Uggghhh…what the fuck…? Where am I?" Tobin lifted his head slightly and bellowed, "Wife! Wife!"

"There's no need to yell like you're ordering the army on a march. I'm right here." she shushed him while tightening the belt of her robe.

"Why am I here? What the fuck happened to me? My head feels like it's going to split fucking open!"

"Well, you'd already had plenty to drink before you showed up here last night." Celia went back to looking out the orange sky. "So don't go blaming me for the state of you. Ask whichever of your friends you were with."

A Job Done Well Enough