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The Loneliest Ballad

“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.

Gabrielle_Johnson_6482 · Histoire
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237 Chs

Puppet

9 January, 1370. St Ivan's Palace, Havietten.

Celia nodded absently as yet another nobleman whose name she'd missed, bowed over Gabriel's cradle and continued spouting flowery praise. She was desperate for a nap but she couldn't go to sleep until the man left.

She'd always believed confinement meant a new mother had the days after giving birth to rest and heal. It was supposed to be a time of quiet and privacy. That's how it had been in Islia, at least.

It turned out such rules didn't apply in Havietten. Not when you gave birth to a future king, at least.

Instead, every noble family was expected to visit her rooms and pay their respects to the prince, as well as present him with a generous gift. From the most powerful duke to the most modest member of the gentry, they were all expected to gaze upon the new heir. For the past several days, Celia's bedchamber had been a constant parade of courtiers traipsing in and out at all hours of the day.