Taming the Grandee

The high plateau of the Sierra Morena at mid-morning was a wild, breathtaking expanse of untamed beauty. Above the treeline, where the cork oaks gave way to scrub juniper, wild lavender, and jagged granite outcrops, the wind blew clean and sharp from the northern meseta. Far below to the south, the silver ribbon of the Guadalquivir River meandered through the emerald quilt of the Andalusian lowlands, its distant waters catching…