Uther leaned heavily against the door of their chambers as soon as it shut. He felt exhausted, frustrated, ready to give up. He yanked the crown from his head and threw it blindly across the room. He heard it clatter on the floor.
"Honey, hey, its alright."
Igraine was instantly at his side, running her soothing hands over his shoulders. She lead him to the bed and he went willingly, stepping over the crown.
"Councillors still fighting?" she asked as she pushed him down onto the bed.
He grunted. "When aren't they?"
She started rubbing his shoulders, feeling them crack under her firm fingers. "What about this time?"
He didn't want to tell her. But of course she would know soon anyway. If she didn't already know. "About us." He felt her fingers pause in their ministrations before resuming.
"What are they so opposed to?" she asked mildly.
"They say," he sighed. "You're sure you want to hear this?" he asked. He met her eyes in the mirror across the room.
She nodded. "We can face it together."
"They say you're an uneducated whelp from the low countries. Unfit to run a kingdom. They say you look sickly, unable to bear a strong child. They say you poison our court with your sorceress friends." He took a deep breath. "They said if I absolutely insist on marrying someone in your family, it should Elayne as she is older. They'd advocate for Morgause if she wasn't already being courted by Lot."
Igraine threw her head back and laughed. "You'd have no more luck trying to wed Elayne than you would catching a thunderstorm in a fishing net. I'm the next eligible daughter and everyone knows it."
Uther cracked a smile. He had been right. She would lift his mood.
"Besides, half of that council are walking skeletons. They'll die soon enough and then you'll create a council with people you trust. You can always start adding people now."
"That's true. There's no rule about how many people can be on the council."
"Some of your knights perhaps," she suggested. "You conquered the kingdom with them, you can trust them to have your back."
Uther craned his neck to look Igraine in the eye. "You've already given this some thought, haven't you?"
"You caught me. You've been complaining about the councillors for months now. Someone needed to start thinking of a solution. And it wasn't going to be you."
Uther turned more fully on the bed to pull Igraine closer. "I love you." He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "You'll make the best Queen this land has ever had."