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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 · História
Classificações insuficientes
246 Chs

Only the Two of Us Awake

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

It was still dark. She wasn't sure what time it was exactly, having lost all track of the hours.

Celia shifted in her bed, careful to move slowly. Her body felt like a giant bruise. Next to her, swaddled in pale linen, was Gabriel. 

She knew she wasn't supposed to have him in the bed next to her. One of the midwives had told her a terrible story about a woman who'd always insisted on having her baby share her bed. One night, the unlucky woman fell asleep and accidentally rolled onto her infant, smothering the life out of them. 

But I'm not asleep, Celia thought. That makes all the difference. I refuse to sleep, because it's all time I can spend looking at my perfect little boy instead. 

She lay curled up on her side, staring in quiet awe as Gabriel dozed. He was true perfection, from his dainty eyelashes to his button nose. She couldn't imagine a more beautiful child.