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A/U story!Different Century!
A Match
Chapter 1
What would you do for a Friend?
There could be no greater felicity, Miss Olivia Benson was certain, than a lounging day by the lake on her parents grounds. Especially with her favourite person in the world, Mr. Elliot Stabler.
One might call it impertinent, the way they spent time together, unaccompanied by any friend or maid, but Olivia found the implication that they were doing anything improper simply preposterous. Elliot had been her dearest – and at times, her only – friend since a young age.
And on a day like this, with the sunshine warm on their faces and a gentle breeze rustling through the nearby forest, she couldn't bother to think of such things. Nothing could destroy these moments.
Well, almost nothing.
"I have to get married," Elliot said miserably. His demeanour suggested complete calm – he sat sprawled in the grass, legs stretched out in front of him, supporting his weight with his hands behind him – but his eyes said something else.
Olivia swallowed. "W-why ever would you have to marry? You're only seventeen. No men marry so young."
Elliot sighed. "My parents, in their will, made it so that I would receive access to my full inheritance at age eighteen – but it would remain under the custody of my guardian until I married. I- I'm sure they thought they'd be preventing me from squandering the family fortune, but I don't think they considered who my guardians might be."
Unfortunately, Elliot had suffered a most tragic childhood. While just an toddler, his parents had been murdered by a man opposed to their political views and political power, called Lord Tucker. To add insult to injury, Elliot's godfather, Lord Munch , had been framed for the murder and imprisoned for nine years – until he escaped and revealed the real culprit to Elliot. Unfortunately, Lord Munch died shortly- later while engaged in a fight with one of Lord Tucker's supporters. Elliot had been devastated.
With his legally appointed guardian in prison for murder and his dead, Elliot had been forced to live with his last remaining relatives, the Freud's family. Mrs. Freud's was Elliot's father's only sister, married to a decently well-off businessman.
They had two sons, both exceedingly rotund and ill-mannered, named Benjamin and Doyle. Mr. and Mrs. Freud´s indulged their sons extravagantly while giving Elliot barely enough to live on. Only by chance Elliot found out not only about his fortune, but about his true nature. Elliot was a Lord, just as his parents had been.
So there they sat on that lovely May afternoon, thinking about how his life would change when he would turn 18 and receive his fortune on the last day of August that year. Until then the greedy Freud's would maintain the control over it until he married.
Olivia felt her heart grow heavy. Elliot was too young to marry – she wasn't ready for him to marry, because when he did, their friendship as she knew it would die. They'd never be able to sit together like this again…indeed, they'd probably not be alone in each other's presence for the rest of their lives. And what if Elliot´s wife didn't approve of their friendship?Would they be able to maintain any sort of relationship at all?
"Have…have you any prospects?" Olivia asked, eager to know whom all Elliot's attention would soon be devoted to.
Elliot sighed, brushing his hand trough his hair.
"I'd always wanted to marry for love, as my father did. It's not as if I need worry about money – or at least, I hadn't thought I would, and…where's the sense in bowing to the demands of society only to be miserable the rest of my life? I find, however, that…I've never felt anything more than a fleeting fancy for any woman. All my contemplations have led me to only one conclusion…and that is that you are and always have been the woman I care most for in the world."
The candour of Elliot's words stunned Olivia into speechlessness, and she felt tears prick at her eyes as Elliot turned his body and his gaze fully to her.
"I've thought long and hard on this matter before confiding in you…I could not ask anyone else, Olivia. I – I cannot promise love, nor, do I believe, can you, but…we have such similar dispositions that I believe we could live quite comfortably together, and I would endeavour in every way to make you happy. If you long for something more, some deeper affection, then I will take no offense at your rejection, but…but if you feel as I do, that you could be content to spend the rest of your life with a man that holds you in the highest regard as his dearest friend, then perhaps…perhaps you would consent to marry me?"
His speech was bumbling and a little boyish, but as usual, Olivia was impressed with his simple sincerity. Her mind buzzed with his words as she sat beside him in the grass, knees drawn up to her chest underneath the standard, basic white frock all girls wore today. So unexpected was his proposal that she couldn't begin to think of an answer.
Olivia swallowed."Will you…will you be willing to accept my reply tomorrow?"
"Of course," Elliot said, blushing and gazing intently at his rather scuffed up shoes. "I apologize if I've made you uncomfortable."
"No, not at all – you've only taken me by surprise," Olivia said as she stood and readied herself to return to the house. Honestly, she was flustered beyond belief and could only make a vague affectation of calmness, but she tried nonetheless.
"Let me escort you back," Elliot said, jumping up and offering his arm with all his usual chivalry. Olivia smiled and accepted, feeling as always a deep sense of affection for the young man, and wondering if she could accept the life he offered her.
Olivia spent that evening awake with her thoughts. While she did not believe herself to be in love with Elliot, and nor could she be sure that she ever would – and even still, while she knew Elliot did not and probably would not ever love her – he was one of two man´s in the world Olivia truly respected – the other being her father. And knowing Elliot's character as she did, she felt sure he'd be nothing less than a devoted and kind husband, which was more than many a woman could ask for. He was right; they could live quite comfortably together, and though she hated to admit it, the match would be most advantageous. In marrying him, she could save him from destitution and secure her own future at the same time.
Still, Olivia blanched at the thought of forever. If she married Elliot, that would be permanent. She would lose forever any chance she had of finding love…true love. Thought outwardly pragmatic and rational, Olivia had always harboured an inner sense of romanticism, a dream of a man that would love her passionately and respect both her intelligence and her longing for independence.
Olivia had long chided herself for such silly fantasies, however, believing them to be girlish and impractical. As difficult as such long-rooted desires were to uproot, she felt she must. What if true love never came, and she lived a life of poverty and loneliness waiting for it?
When she could have been comfortable, and…happy, with Elliot. What more could she ask for, than a lifetime spent in the company of her dearest friend? He had, at least, never tried to tame her like most men had, had never asked her to be meek and ignorant of the world around her. Unlike everyone else in the world (or so it seemed to Olivia), Elliot had never wished her to confine her learning to do the household and other or other such insane things. Even her unconditional love in reading was something he said, he liked about her.
Surely Elliot would continue to grant her great freedom as his wife…and could there really be another man in the world so compatible to her nature that would allow her half the liberty Elliot would?
And…and if they were married, nobody would question their behaviour around one another any longer…theirs could be as affectionate a friendship as they liked, with all the privacy they'd often longed for.
She would never have to give him up, she realized. Their friendship could last…interminably. Unless, of course, she refused him, and he was forced to choose another wife – leaving her quite alone in wait for something better, something that might never come.
By sunrise, she had made her decision.
The next day, Elliot asked her to walk with him. They strolled around the lake in silence, and finally stopped at Olivia's favourite tree, where she often sat reading, and where Elliot often sat with her in companionable silence.
She turned to him, meeting his anticipatory gaze readily. "If you feel quite certain that I am the woman you wish to take as your wife, then I will gladly consent."
Elliot smiled, a broad, unreserved smile. "I am certain, and…so very pleased. I can think of no better life's companion, nor any better Mistress of Stablers Manor, than you. We will have a happy life, I know it. If you give me leave, I'll write your father this very moment. I'm afraid I did not quite have the courage to ask his consent beforehand."
"Yes, of course," Olivia replied, holding back a chuckle, and she was only blushing slightly as he rushed back to the house.
The next day, Elliot received her father's reply letter, which gave his hearty consent to the match, provided Olivia was willing, which she promptly wrote him to say that she was.
The wedding was set to be held in late June at the Benson's House, after which they would honeymoon at the Munch Manor in New York and then settle in at Stabler´s Manor. All of their friends were informed of the engagement, and for the next month, Olivia barely saw her fiancé. Both where busy with their engagements , and while Olivia was trapped in gown fittings, Elliot was preparing his estate for their inhabitance.
Meanwhile, rumours circulated heavily about the reasons for their marrying. None but Elliot and Olivia knew of his precarious financial situation, so naturally, all rumours were completely untrue. Many whispered in the streets that they were forced into the marriage by the consequences of their time spent alone together, an assumption that they knew that Olivia would be dismissed in nine months. Others claimed that Olivia played games on him to gain his heart – or his money. Still, there was a small contingent of romantics that insist that Elliot and Olivia were deeply, passionately in love and had been for some time. Olivia wished the last were truer, but quickly dismissed such thoughts. She was very lucky to have a man such as Elliot for her husband, and she would be happy with that.
Olivia had little time for second thoughts or doubts, however, as her wedding day arrived with alarming speed. No sooner that the ink had dried on her engagements and pre-nub papers, it seemed, than she was pulled into her dressing room the morning of the ceremony.
The event itself was performed with simplicity and economy, sealed with the chastest of kisses that never the less left Olivia's lips tingling oddly afterwards. She gave this sensation to the novelty of the act of kissing, and for the duration of their wedding breakfast, felt comfortably at ease in the presence of her best friend.
Not until she and Elliot were in the carriage bound for New York, did Olivia begin to contemplate the wifely duties she would be expected to perform that night.
