María and Andrés arrive at the Olivares estate, a grand casona atop a hill within high walls, greeted by servants. Andrés tours María through the halls and courtyards, repeatedly saying, “It is yours,” as he shows her rooms, the view, and the lands, and María hungrily embraces the vision of ownership and possibility.

They dine beneath portraits of the Olivares family, including an aggrandized painting of Andrés. While he talks and drinks, María focuses on the rich food, recalling her lifelong hunger and imagining that perhaps her body craves richness. That night, Andrés comes to her room again and rapes her, gripping her hair and treating her like a vessel for a child. After he leaves, María cleans herself, prays the herbal remedy will continue to work, strips the sweaty linens, and tries to sleep.

In the morning María is awakened by a new maid, Ysabel, who gently dresses her in a fine gown. María notes Ysabel’s softness and blushes at her touch, then goes to breakfast, where she learns Andrés has gone to meet vassals. She eats alone, savoring the silence, and wanders the house and grounds, mentally redecorating and claiming the space as her own.

Outside, María eats black cherries and saves the pits, then slips beyond the gates to press them into the soil of an olive grove, imagining a future cherry orchard intermingled with Andrés’s olives. She naps in the shade until Andrés returns; he reacts with cold anger that she left the walls and orders her to stay within the gates, calling her a jewel others might covet. That night he again tightens his grip in her hair during sex, and after he leaves, she discards the sheets and throws open the windows to the light.

At dawn, María dresses herself, noticing that her old clothes are gone, and watches Andrés ride out. She immediately goes to the stables to have her mare, Gloria, saddled, but the groom refuses, citing Andrés’s orders and warning he must hobble the horse if she insists. Shocked and enraged by this control, María tempers her reaction, touches the ruby pendant, and feigns agreement, saying the weather is unsuitable, outwardly compliant while masking her fury.