Chapter 277. Symbolism

*Maddy*

I spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening with Ella in her studio. She’s nearly finished with my official portrait, and it’s exquisite, so realistic it could be a photograph.

As I pick through my dinner sometime later, I silently wonder if anyone captured any pictures of Isaac and I on our wedding day. I hadn’t even thought about it before now, and my chest tightens with the sudden realization that we might not have anything that shows us together but a silly piece of paper with our signatures on it proving we’ve wed.

Dinners at the castle lately have been quiet and tense. Emery and Ben’s children are the only reason any of us haven’t succumbed to total numbness waiting for news from the front lines. Isla is getting especially fidgety lately. She wants to go to Maddox, that’s clear, and I know she eventually will.

How would she feel about me going, too?

I shake the thought from my mind as I leave the table and excuse myself, feigning a