The Bloody Chamber

She is a seventeen year old virgin. She’s poor. The marquis is 50 and rich beyond imagining. He marries her and takes her to his castle, half on land, half on sea. It’s like a fairy tale! The honeymoon has hardly begun before he must leave her with his keys and this instruction: “All is yours, everywhere is open to you – except the lock that this single key fits. You must promise , if you love me, to leave it well alone”