A/N: This chapter leaves the women 4 a bit and changes subject: I thought it would make for a bit of a breather. I understand IÂ’ve skipped quite a few events but felt I needed to move on.

~ ~

Several weeks later, Arwen was settling in quite well. She had made many friends. Though she had never managed to convince Alatariel and her peers to change their ways, Arwen did not care. Luckily, however, she had managed to convince Galadriel not to say anything. Today was the first proper council meeting since Arwen had arrived in Gondor.

All rose to greet the King and Queen as they walked in together, but the smiles soon turned to puzzled expressions when the Queen sat down instead of going out of the door.

“You stay, my lady?” Ventured a brave councillor.

“Of course,” Arwen replied in bemusement. “What is the problem?”

The councillor opened his mouth to reply, before Aragorn cut in.

“I am sure there is no difficulty, Lord Hendras?” he asked diplomatically.

“No, your majesty, obviously there is not. My apologies, sir,” Lord Hendras stammered.

“You need not apologise to me,” Aragorn said pointedly.

“Apologies, lady,” the embarrassed man uttered grudgingly.

“You are forgiven, my lord,” Arwen returned, in a far more gracious manner than the councillor had spoken in.

Aragorn stood. “Friends and strangers, the difficult task of rebuilding Gondor from the brink of destruction lies before us. Today we must plan how best to do this. I would suggest we start by rebuilding the damage suffered to this city and work outwards from there.”

A ripple of agreement spread through those gathered.

“I thought we would start on the Northward side, as this is most badly damaged. The question remains as to whom should be appointed the task.”

“Darascus. He’s the quickest builder I’ve known and he charges very little gold for his work,” Lord Seyban suggested.

“How good is he?” Arwen asked.

Some of the councillors laughed.

“Perhaps the Midsummer heat proves too much for you, lady. As I have said, he is both quick and cheap.”

Aragorn started to come to his wifeÂ’s defence, but a swift look from her silenced him.

“I am aware what you said, sir. But I did not ask you how fast or cheap he was. I asked you how good he was. To what standard will the work be done?”

He gaped at her. “What does that matter? You have no eye for economy, Queen Arwen. We need the fastest and cheapest builder there is around.”

“She does have an excellent eye for economy, Seyban. What use is it to be built cheaply now, only for it to fall down in ten years time?” Faramir snapped.

“I’m glad you never were the steward. You are nothing like your father. I would call anyone stupid who suggested that!”

“Two people more powerful than you? You would call them stupid.”

“Only you are more powerful than me, save the King, by ancient tradition. You should know that the chief advisor has always been third in command.”

“Where am I, then?” Arwen asked gently.

“You? Your position is below all of ours. You bear heirs to the throne: you should not even be here!” Lord Hendras laughed, forgetting the king was even there.

“In that case,” Aragorn broke in, “I should change the traditions. If someone like Lord Seyban is third in command: or second when there was no King; then no wonder all the battles went ill.”

Lord SeybanÂ’s eyes bulged from his head, but he remained silent. Aragorn saw ArwenÂ’s slight tremble from the corner of his eye and realised that she would be blamed for all the problems.

“We shall take a short reprieve to allow everyone to calm down. We will meet here again in fifteen minutes.”

Aragorn and Arwen walked down the corridor together, and went outside to sit beside the white tree.

“I’m sorry, meleth. They were truly awful to you,” Aragorn murmured as he slipped his arm over Arwen’s shoulders.

She smiled at him. “Never mind, Estel, they shall soon get used to me.”

~ ~

A/N: Please review! It really doesnÂ’t take long. Criticism presented in a non- aggressive way makes my day! Of course, just writing: I read your fic and liked/disliked it is better than nothing! 🙂