She then spent the next couple of hours reading over the material regarding Maddoc. Halfway through, Milly brought her a meal, and she, of course, couldn’t help fussing over her—if she’d eaten enough, drank enough, if her clothes were right—and generally getting in the way of her reading.
“Has all of high society heard about what happened in court yesterday?” she said abruptly, interrupting Milly midsentence. Usually Milly refused to discuss what she called “news for idle tongues and minds,” but Ana was curious to know if she would this time.
Milly fell silent. “It is all anyone is talking about,” she admitted finally, her stiff tone heavy with disapproval. “I’ve stayed away from discussions about it. I see no need to talk about it, and I expressed that opinion clearly and violently to anyone who dares raise it in my presence.”
Ana nodded, a smile playing on her lips. Protective, second-mother Milly was clearly upset and insulted by the gossip. “You suggested I shouldn’t talk to him at all.”
Milly dipped her head in a sharp nod. “I did. I know your parents have their well-meaning agenda, but I don’t think it is ever wise for an Omega to provoke an Alpha. If you’ve angered him, he has two more nights to make you suffer for it. And this particular Alpha is very dangerous.”
Ana tilted her head as she gazed at her. Milly had been the one to deliver almost all of her lessons on a variety of topics. “Why do you think he is doing this? Saving Father for a promise and then demanding me?”
Milly shook her head slowly, her blue eyes troubled. “I’m not sure, Ana. But he is not as stupid as court allows everyone to believe. He doesn’t act as randomly or as foolishly as people think. He has also demonstrated a careful approach to almost everything he does and uses specific strategies to make sure maximum damaged is caused when he wants it to be.”
Ana’s mouth went dry. “So you think there is a grander reason for this? Other than him just wanting to lay with me.”
“Undoubtedly,” Milly said, lowering her voice to a murmur. “But it’s not for me to speculate, particularly to you. Your parents have been very clear about it. I find myself at odds with them for the first time, because I just want you to survive this. I don’t care about anything else. I know they must also be concerned about wider issues that I have no right to ignore.”
Ana met her gaze, unease creeping into her. What could Maddoc possibly be planning? The end of the crown? That seemed to be what her parents were mostly concerned about preventing, but how would he accomplish that? Currently he was only protected by the promise, and Father already planned to kill him at dawn after the last night.
Maddoc had hinted that she could figure it out if she bothered to read, but reading was the main activity she’d partaken in her whole life. She’d seen nothing that could explain this. “How do you know about his strategies?”
“It’s in all the material about him. I studied them, read between the lines, and saw patterns and similarities that arose.”
Ana’s frown deepened. Milly had never spoken about analyzing text in that way before. Maybe that was how she taught Ana her lessons.
“But that’s nothing you have to worry about, Ana,” Milly added, hastily. “Just do what your parents have asked. But stay safe.”
Ana spent the rest of the afternoon studying Maddoc’s recorded movements in the kingdom. Milly was right—he was indeed very clever. He used disruptions on one side of a village or town as a distraction to rob a building on the other side, similar to what he did with the crowd last night. Or he created some kind of diversion to cause an entire noble family to leave their house so he could rob them twice—their household, and while they were on the road. It seemed he managed to have plans for each of the buildings he targeted because no one ever saw him when he entered, indicating he knew the staff’s routines. Everything about the way he operated suggested he had intimate knowledge of the upper nobility and potentially the royal houses too. He had never directly attacked the palace, so there was no way of knowing how acquainted he was with it or with the ruling family, but he clearly knew the rumors about Ana.
By the time dusk was approaching, Ana had built a more accurate picture of him. And regardless of what Mother said, it was somewhat frightening.
The man was a heinous criminal. His reputation preceded him, as an exceptional archer and swordsman who’d kill anyone who got in his way, or anyone who’d seen his face, which was why no one knew what he looked like. His victims included women and children of both royal and common blood. He burned down villages and towns to steal gold and other precious items held in their treasuries, and his men used the destruction to rape women and steal boys of fifteen and up who would become part of their “fellowship,” twisting their minds by promising them riches and women.
It was reported that he had thousands of men in his guild—not all of them were known, and some hid in plain sight as men of respectable stature. Apart from the children, he also recruited from those made nameless from failing to pay taxes on their land or those who were outright criminals. Most of the men wore masks when taking part in his criminal activities, but some of them didn’t. As such, there were a number of sketches in the files, but never a sketch of the man himself. It was suggested in one document that he had spies in either the royal assembly or the royal court, which made him a powerful threat. But the notion had been discarded after further analysis.
Ana tried to objectively analyze what she read, but it was difficult. Maddoc was the most destructive man in Allandis, and what stood out to her the most was his utter lack of concern for civilized life. He didn’t care who he hurt in his crusade. Everything he did was for his own gain, and he took pleasure in hurting innocent commoners in the process. It was sickening, and she detested that she’d had him inside her.
She remained confused about his approach to the Royal Promise; it didn’t make sense he used it for sex with her when he could have taken more direct steps to tear down the kingdom. He could have acquired much with that promise; a pardon, land, gold, anything of significant value to the traditions and history of the royals. Something wasn’t right about his request for her, but she couldn’t figure it out.
Thoughts whirled in her mind as she prepared for dusk, bathing and braiding her hair, and dressing in another elaborate gown.
By the time the guards collected her, she had decided on the second thing she would withhold; her anger. Maddoc was the only person who had managed to somehow burrow down deep into her being, skipping all of her careful training, and made her react instinctively, even sometimes causing her to bypass sensible thinking. It had to be because he was an Alpha. She didn’t like it. Maybe that was his plan?
One thing Maddoc had been right about was that she wasn’t a child anymore, and she needed to act like it. Although the legal age of adulthood in Allandis was eighteen, many didn’t assert themselves as adults until twenty-two. Ridiculous as it was, Allandis mythology had always revered double numbers, and twenty-two was when most people married, bought land, and asserted themselves to confirm their status as an adult. Ana was twenty-two in three weeks—the day before her wedding, but she wasn’t a child. She should be doing whatever she could in this situation to help not only her parents, but the kingdom as well. It was her duty.