"Daddy, has it ever occurred to you and Mother that I might like things that you don't or that I might actually hate things you love, like skiing. Or I am just expected to be the pretty doll that you haul out as the requisite daughter of the family. I spent a fair amount of time this last month figuring out who I really am and what I want in life. As an empath it has always been easiest for me just to go along with what you and Mother wanted; be that dating Morgan Holson or Peter Benchcombe, or working for the state department, or having a security detail that puts me down for being a squib. I got ordered to go on vacation because I was developing an ulcer. I did some research while Andrew planned. One of the major causes of ulcers is stress. Before I left I wondered what did I have to be stressed about after all I live a life of sheltered luxury but when I was handed an itinerary for a vacation it occurred to me. An itinerary for each day for a vacation! Does anyone beside me see something wrong with this picture. I was stressed because I had no choices and no respect. So I left. I went to the beach. I had no schedule, no one putting me down and I got to, amazingly, make my own choices, and it was the most wonderful time I've had in my life!"
Her parents winced when Beth mentioned the two wizards. Both had been introduced to Beth as respectable potential mates. Both had proved to be accomplished manipulators who had only been after Beth for her political connections. They had courted and wooed Beth and had even gotten engaged to her before Beth found out their true purposes. Morgan had been overheard insulting Beth's squib status and Peter had been caught in bed with another witch. They winced again about her statements about being looked down on as a squib, because they had been guilty of doing that themselves. But they felt really ashamed when she pointed out the lack of respect and choice.
Maryanne Stevens felt even worse than her husband. How had she failed her daughter this badly? "So you went to the beach? What did you do?"
"Well I walked on the beach lots." Beth paused, as it occurred to her she could get a little bit of revenge on her overprotective parents. "I met a wonderful man." Come on bite little fishy, she thought.
"A man what does he do?" Her father asked.
Gotcha! "He's in between jobs at the moment." She said fighting a smirk. The expression on both her parents faces screamed that they were thinking 'Oh no a beach bum influencing our precious daughter.'
"He taught me how to sail and snorkel it was so relaxing and the nights…" Beth smirked as her mother went white and her father went puce.
Beth's security detail fought back snickers. Their charge was certainly getting a little revenge. She had just implied the man she met was a beach bum. But the ring on her finger implied that even if she met him on a beach and he was between jobs the man was loaded.
"Anyway, he was there with his adopted son and all of us had a good time. Oh look at the time… I'm sure you were about to have a meeting since Mathilda, Eleanor, Calvin and Hershel are all here. I'm going to be meeting with my new detail. I'll see you this evening. It is this evening we're supposed to go eat at the White House isn't it? My dates are a little fuzzy traveling forty eight hours and crossing the dateline and all.. It was nice to see you all."
Roy and the rest of her detail made it to the same conference room they had used last night bringing Beth with them before finally succumbing to the laughter they'd been fighting. "Remind me never to get on your bad side Miss O'Neill." Roy said. "Just for our own information who is your mysterious fiance?"
"Sirius Black."
Chapter 19 What's Life Without a Few Bumps
Beth didn't expect the reaction she got from her security detail, although she admitted she should have.
Roy's voice went totally cold. "Winry check her for imperious. Radar contact…"
"Hold it!" Beth shouted. "Gees he said any security force worth it's salt would do this at the mention of his name. I didn't believe him. And no Winry you don't need to check me for imperious. Sirius is innocent, no matter what that kangaroo court in the U.K. says. I asked him to come with me and meet Mother and Dad and he told me openly he was a wanted man in a third of the world and why. I tell myself he's overreacting, and then this happens."
"Miss O'Neill the man you named is a dangerous wizard. He betrayed his best friend and kidnapped a small child such a man would have no compunctions about lying to you to get you to go to bed with him. How exactly did you meet him?" Roy firmly stated.
"I met Harry, the said small child first, and it isn't kidnapping if you're the guardian assigned by the deceased parents is it? I met Harry walking on the beach my second morning in Palau. I had breakfast with Harry and Sirius that morning and I went for a hike with them that afternoon. We enjoyed each others company so we started having meals together and going on outings. I wasn't even aware they were even wizards for a week and a half. I only found out because Harry apparated to the beach before a shark munched his surfboard. Sirius did exactly two pieces of magic around me one he transfigured his clothes so they would be more appropriate two he shrank my gown so it would fit in my suitcase but you already knew that because you went through my luggage. The entirety of my vacation was spent in their company at a muggle resort and at the moment I'm wishing I had stayed with them rather than coming back here to be harassed by a bunch of idiots."
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