On a late October day, María hides atop a stable roof while Rafa searches for her. Felipe finds her and brings her home, where a finely dressed stranger, Andrés de Guzmán, Viscount of Olivares and a knight of the Order of Santiago, waits with Rafa and their mother. María observes his wealth and status, noting how out of place he seems in their modest house.

Rafa announces that Andrés seeks María’s hand. Although she feigns surprise and momentarily toys with the room by asking “What if I refuse?”, María has been planning this outcome; over the past year she has learned to wield the attention of passing pilgrims and targeted Andrés specifically, luring him into the church’s shadow a month earlier and making clear he could only touch her as a husband. Understanding the constraints of her life and determined to choose a grander path than the one before her, María accepts.

Two weeks later, Andrés returns with a caravan of gifts—tapestries, wine, food, tableware, even hens—transforming the town square into a festival ground for the wedding. The night before the ceremony, María’s mother brushes her hair and counsels her to be gentle, loving, and obedient, warning that powerful men take what they want. María inwardly asserts that she takes what she wants, too.

María and Andrés marry on the cathedral steps. During Mass, María luxuriates in her gold-trimmed dress, framing the marriage as a key to a richer life. At the feast, Andrés repeatedly calls her “mi esposa” instead of using her name. His parents are absent but, he says, send their good wishes. Rafa is smug, Felipe drunk, and their mother wistful; María tries and fails to summon grief at leaving.

As they depart for Andrés’s estate, María receives farewells: Rafa urges her to be a good wife; Felipe embraces her; Elana and Lessandra address her as sister, with Elana grasping for a promise that María evades with polite words. María takes Andrés’s arm and leaves Santo Domingo. The narration reveals the grim outcome: she will never see her family again.