Here we are, learning about the backstory with Miranda and Birk. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3: Birk

Miranda stepped inside, and then went and sat on the bed. She twiddled her hands in her lap as Roland closed the door and came to sit next to her. He put his hand on hers. "Alright Miranda, tell me. What is going on?" He asked quietly.

Miranda breathed deeply. "Birk is... Sofia's father."

Roland didn't say anything; he just kept his compassionate, steady gaze on her. "You knew that already of course," Miranda laughed at herself.

Roland smiled a little and nodded. She breathed another deep breath as she tried to calm herself down. All right, the whole story Miranda, come on, you can do it. She sighed inwardly; this was going to be exactly as hard as she thought.

"I met Birk thirteen years ago when I moved with my parents to Friezenburg. My father got a job writing the memoirs of the King." She laughed ironically, "I had almost forgotten that I'd been around royalty regularly before I married you. Although, I didn't live inside the palace. Father, mother and I lived just outside the gates and once every week, the King had dinner with all his staff, so we'd get to go with father.

"No wonder you're such a natural around royals." Roland mused.

Miranda smiled weakly, appreciative of the little jest, and then continued with her story. "I worked with my mother in our shoe shop, mostly running errands and keeping the shop clean. One day, when I was getting groceries, a boy a few years older than me ran into me, knocked me over and stole some of the food I had been carrying. Naturally, I ran after him. Once I had him cornered I was going to demand he give me back my food. But when it came down to it, I just couldn't do it. He was so skinny and we had enough money to buy more food, so I let him have it. He thanked me and promised me he'd pay me back, but then ran away before I could tell him it was no trouble.

"After a few days, the boy came to the shop, as you probably guessed the boy was Birk, and he brought me one flower. 'One flower for each thing you gave me to eat.' He said. I was young and naive, so obviously, I fell for him instantly. Each time he came to give me a flower, I would give him a loaf of bread so that his debt could never be paid in full." Miranda smiled sadly as she remembered how in love they were, it was so innocent, so pure. She sighed, and then continued.

"Fast forward a couple years and we were getting married. My father had passed away so my mother moved back to Enchancia, while I stayed with Birk in Friezenburg. At first, we were doing well for newlyweds. I worked as a shoemaker in my mother's shop and he was a courier, within the Kingdom for the most part. But, then he started carrying messages to other nearby kingdoms, he'd be gone for a couple days, and every once in a while he'd be gone for a week. It didn't seem so bad, for the first three years anyway. But, then as time went on, a trip that would take him a couple days would take a week, and the ones that would take him a week would take three or more. I didn't know it at the time of course, but it was on those trips where he would... indulge himself in other women." Miranda paused and buried her face in her hands. "Ugh, how could I have been so stupid!" Miranda rubbed her face, and then rested her chin in her hands.

"And that was only the beginning of our troubles." She let out an aggravated growl and felt the tears threatening to come back, but these weren't tears of sorrow she had cried in the corridor; these were tears of rage. She didn't realize she would get so worked up as she continued to dig up the old memories and emotions.

"Because Birk started to take so long on his courier duties, he was fired from his job. But I didn't know that until months later. He continued to be gone for days and weeks at a time, and when he was home, he was drunk. And angry. He never actually hit me, but he threatened constantly. He'd tell me I was the reason for his drinking. He told me countless times, that I was worthless, and he didn't know why he married me in the first place. Little did that sick bastard know that HE and his secret women were the cause of his drinking! . . . I'm sorry." Miranda's whole body was shaking as the tears threatened to fall again from her eyes. She took another deep, unsteady breath, held it for a second, and let it out.

"The last year of our marriage, when I found out I was pregnant with Sofia, I gave him an ultimatum. I said, 'either you stop drinking, or I'm leaving.' It almost worked. He was sober for about a week before he drank so much he could barely even stand up. He was in one of his rages again, but this time was different. He had this crazy look in his eye like he was ready to kill anyone who crossed him. I was scared. He was wrecking our house, yelling at me saying that I was a worthless piece of trash. I tried to stay as far away from him as possible. He kept yelling at me, 'why you avoiding me Miranda?' The sick bastard didn't even sound half that clear. I didn't respond to him, which only made him angrier, and more frightening. So, I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed one of the frying pans while he was trying to get up after he tripped over his own feet. He blamed me for thattoo. When he finally was able to get up, he saw my frying pan and said, 'You don't have the guts to hit me. I'm your husband, you wouldn't be anything without me.' I said, 'oh yeah, come and find out you sick drunk.' That about did it. He came at me, ready to strangle me, I'm sure, but I hit him. Hard. I knocked him out. Though, it's not all that hard to knock out a man that's one more sip of mead away from passing out anyway. "

Miranda touched her forehead and paused for a long moment. She laid her hands in her lap and looked at Roland. "Think I'm crazy yet?" she asked dryly. He was gazing at her intently. He had a scowl on, but Miranda knew it wasn't at her, or at least she hoped.

Roland shook his head. "Of course not," he said seriously.

Miranda sighed again and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, that makes one of us." Miranda slouched and leaned her chin on one of her hands gazing at the floor. There was a long silence. Miranda listened to the birds' faint singing coming from outside. Roland touched her leg. "How did you get to Enchancia?" he asked, breaking the long silence. She took his hand and held it in her lap.

"I moved back here with my mother—lived with her for a while until I could afford to live on my own. She helped me a lot while I was pregnant with Sofia and even up until Sofia was old enough to help me around the shop. Soon after that, my mother fell ill, and she passed away. As for Birk, I never heard from him again. That is, until today."

Miranda stared intently at Roland's hand. She wasn't quite sure what to expect from him, which, wasn't something Miranda was used to. She turned to face him and tried to gauge his reaction. No such luck, the only thing she could gather was that he was thinking, letting the story sink in. She'd wait for him to respond.

He looked at the floor, then at their hands, then at her. "That's the man who came into our throne room today, asking to see our daughter?" Roland's voice was deep and serious. It was a mix of his authoritative dad voice and his…sexy, protective voice. Was this an inappropriate time to be thinking how attractive her husband was? Maybe it was because of all the things that Birk wasn't contrasted so drastically with all that Roland was. She put thoughts of comparing Roland and Birk behind her. She did not want to risk tainting the beautiful memories she had of Rolland, with the dreadful ones of her former husband.

Miranda shrugged. "That's who he was back then, or at least that's what he'd probably say," she replied.

Roland took both of her hands in his. "Whoever this man is now, we need to be careful. We need to see if he's really who he says he is. I won't put my family at risk." Miranda nodded. Roland's brow furrowed deeper as he thought of his solution to the problem. He then faced Miranda again, "Does Sofia know anything about her father?" he asked, somewhat to Miranda's surprise.

"Well, no. She's asked me many times, but I never answered her. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth; but I couldn't bring myself to lie to her either." She looked down at the floor, ashamed she just left her child wondering all those years about any semblance of a father.

"Well, whatever you choose to tell her is up to you. Then, if you want, it can just be, you, me, and the whole Royal Guard worried about how this man is going to act around our daughter."

Miranda thought for a moment. "If Sofia doesn't know what happened with me and her father, I'm afraid she might be too trusting of him. She always sees the best in people, and although I'm proud of her for it, I'm afraid she's going to get hurt one day."

Roland sighed. "I know what you mean." He paused, obviously mulling something over in his brain quickly before speaking again. "Assuming you don't tell Sofia the whole story, and she chooses to meet Birk, what say you to having a meeting with him first? Just us two. That way, we can see for ourselves if he's really changed or not and we can decide if he should be allowed to spend time with Sofia."

Miranda nodded gently. "I think that would be the safest thing to do."

In times like these, Roland's kingly ability to make quick, reasonable decisions was most noticeable to Miranda. It was something else that drew her to him. She smiled, and gripped his hand tighter. Roland laced his fingers through hers and brought one hand on the back of her neck and leaned their foreheads together.

"I promise, I will never let anything bad happen to you or Sofia ever again," he said softly. Miranda relaxed and leaned more readily on him. She inhaled his scent, "I love you, Rollie." She sighed. "I couldn't have asked for someone better."

Roland smiled. "And I love you, Miranda. More than you know." He kissed her tenderly, lovingly, melding their lips together for an instant. "Don't you worry. We'll be just fine. We'll keep our children safe."

Miranda kissed him again, this time with more fervor. Roland, the provider and protector of her, and more importantly, her children; it was one of the things Miranda loved most about him, one of the things she relished in. Roland kissed her passionately and treated her tenderly. Miranda didn't know it was possible to feel so many different emotions at the same time. She felt sadness for lying to him, joy for him being so good to her, fear of Birk and what he would do, and disgust and anger for what he had done in the past. All of these things gave her more reason cling tighter to Roland, as he loved her powerfully and tenderly. She relinquished everything to him, and she had never before felt so completely loved.