13. During the titular story, "The Bloody Chamber", what does the protagonist find in the chamber?
From Quiz The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Answer:
The bodies of her husband's previous wives
In this take on the Charles Perrault folk tale "Bluebeard", a young bride is taken in as the fourth wife of a rich man and it soon becomes apparent that the marriage is not going to be a lasting one. After several instances of forewarning and bad vibes, she allows herself to be whisked off to her new husband's castle. A pianist, the bride doesn't take to her new castle abode, especially when the piano inside is compromised by the sea out the window; she has to ask to have a tuner come in and fix it regularly. Before the husband heads to New York on a six-week business trip, she's left with the keys and told to have free run of the castle-- every room except one at the foot of the west tower. A blind piano tuner is hired.
It takes little time for the bride to start exploring and, in an attempt to uncover more about her new husband and sate her curiosity, she decides it won't hurt to check his forbidden room. It does. In this literal chamber of horrors she finds the dead bodies of her husband's three prior wives, all tortured. She drops the key in a pool of blood and that ends up being her undoing. After she tells her piano-tuner, her husband returns home and asks to see the keys. He places the bloody one on her forehead, leaving a mark, and tells her that she shall be decapitated. Fortunately, before her head can roll, she's saved by her mother who rides in on a horse and shoots her executioner with a revolver.
The widow inherits the money, marries the blind piano-tuner, and forever holds the mark on her forehead.