I Read Stories: The Hidden Women by Ellen Meny

The Hidden Women by Ellen Meny in Nocturne (link to a pdf of the issue)

An artist paints a series of paintings called The Hidden Women, each a woman in an elegant black gown, with a full face veil. Our narrator has married him, and gone to his home, The Hanged Castle, to pay off her family’s debts. She will be the twelfth woman to be painted.

The artist paints two portraits of each woman, one hidden that he displays to the world, and one unveiled that he will keep for himself. Until he has finished the painting he will not consummate the marriage.

Nor will he show her the unveiled portraits.

Read This: For a creepy tale of a marriage that is wrong from top to bottom, man and woman
Don’t Read This: You know this tale and it was horrible before
Nocturne: Is a pdf file of the whole magazine; I found this story a highlight and you might want to read more