Claire and Madame D'Artois bring Marguerite into the château, sending Agnès away with the girls and ordering food, water, and wine. Marguerite insists on undressing alone, hiding her knife, coins, necklace, pearls, and bear claw inside her linen chest. They wash her, treat her insect bites and cracked skin, dress her in Claire's blue gown, and Claire returns the ruby ring to her finger. Marguerite feels like the prodigal—welcomed but unworthy—and dreads the conversations to come.

The students Suzanne and Ysabeau eagerly demand stories. Marguerite watches lessons, struggles to eat rich foods, and becomes newly conscious of the servants' labor and the household's luxury, having herself known what it means to fetch water and kindling. When alone with Claire and her mother, she partially confides her story: she sailed to the New World with Roberval and a husband he disapproved of, was marooned with Damienne on a deserted island, built a cottage, and survived after both Auguste and Damienne died. She conceals her cavern and her child.

Madame D'Artois reveals Roberval is at court in Blois with the King, meaning Marguerite has no legal recourse—she remains his ward and fears his anger at her return. That night, unable to sleep in the towering bed, Marguerite slips down to the floor to sleep in a blanket. Claire finds her there in the morning and apologizes for having stayed safely at home.

Lessons resume. Suzanne reads of Argia searching among corpses for her dead husband, moving Marguerite to tears. Claire confides that her father, now Lord Montfort, owns the house and is attending Queen Marguerite's court in Béarn with Lady Katherine; their goodwill, channeled through their daughters' affection, may be Marguerite's only protection. Marguerite begins telling the girls carefully chosen wonders—a black granite island, white foxes and bears, a tiny five-petaled flower, a sour berry eaten with gratitude—while privately fearing that Roberval will discover her return before the Montforts come home.