The Bride Of Never Again Poem by David Lewis Paget

The wedding bells had rung out that day,
The groom had toasted the bride,
Confetti flew in the open air
As the newlyweds arrived,
The country vicar was wreathed in smiles
As the couple drove away,
A jangle of cans at the back of the car
At the end of that wedding day.

But Elspeth’s father looked sad and grim
As he watched them disappear,
He held her mother so close to him
As she wiped away a tear,
‘I only hope he protects her, Jen,
She’s our joy, and pure delight,
We don’t know near enough about him,
Her husband, Jonathon Blight.’

They’d only met him the once before
He’d surfaced out of the blue,
She’d told them both of her wedding plans,
She was just on twenty-two,
Her father said, ‘Are you sure of this
It will surely change your life, ’
While Elspeth laughed, ‘But of course I am,
I’m going to make him a wife.’

She’d only known him a month or two,
Or three, or maybe four,
Whenever they asked, she didn’t know,
She said, ‘Who’s keeping score? ’
He’d told her he had a country house
But a hundred miles from there,
‘A fine historical mansion with
A beautiful central stair.’

They travelled into the night, he said:
‘We’ll stop when we get home.’
She fell asleep on the seat, and when
She woke, she was alone.
The night was dark and the moon was out
And he stood by an open door,
Taking a pile of treasury notes
From a man, not seen before.

The house was old and was beaten down
And it stood on a bullock track,
There wasn’t another house for miles
As she found out, looking back,
He pulled her out of the car, and dragged
Her questioning in through the door,
Then told her, ‘Meet your new Master, Stan,
You’re just what he’s looking for! ’

They locked her into a bedroom while
She screamed, and fought and cried,
‘What are you doing, Jon, my love,
You’ve just made me your bride! ’
‘You’re just a chattel, I’ve sold you on
And made me a tidy sum,
Be good to Stan, he’s a kindly man,
But don’t ever try to run! ’

She heard the car as it started up
To return, the way that it came,
She sat on the bed, in terror now
And all she could feel was shame,
Stan waited ‘til she had gone to sleep
Then he quietly opened the door,
And did whatever would make you weep
If you knew, so I’ll say no more.

She woke to find he had stripped her off,
Was dressed in a cotton shift,
A set of chains at her ankles, and
Another at her midriff,
He used the chain to lead her around
And locked the chain at the sink,
‘You get stuck into the dishes there
And then I might make you a drink.’

She cried for days and she pleaded, but
He said: ‘I’m your owner now!
It’s not my fault that you hooked with him,
He said you’re a silly cow.
But you’ll be good for the housework, and
There’s pigs to feed in the barn,
I’ll keep you chained in the cellar, if
You think to raise the alarm! ’

There wasn’t power to the old farmhouse
And water came from the well,
Nobody came to visit there
Or tugged on the rusty bell,
The weeks went by, it was soon a year
Since the wedding she’d come to curse,
And Jonathon Blight could rot in hell
In the depths of her universe.

Her parents waited the promised call
But the call, it never came,
Her mother railed at her father, and
Her father took all the blame.
The police said nobody of the name
Of Blight could ever be found,
Her mother suffered a heart attack
And was found at the lake, she’d drowned.

The father went with a broken heart
And he scoured the countryside,
He swore that he’d find his daughter, salve
The pain that he felt, inside.
He wandered into a wedding, and
His shock was tempered with fright,
For there at the altar stood the groom
He knew as Jonathon Blight.

He stood outside the reception ‘til
It was well and truly dark,
The groom came out for a cigarette
And wandered into the park,
A single blow to the hated head
Put the groom out like a light,
He dragged him into the back of the car
And bound his wrists up tight.

‘So now you’re marrying someone else,
I take it, Mr. Blight?
What have you done with my daughter,
Tell me now, or say goodnight! ’
But Blight had whimpered his name was Cole,
‘It must be a mistake! ’
The only mistake that you ever made
Was to cut that wedding cake.’

The father stabbed at his tender cheek
And he said, ‘You’ll tell me now,
Where I can find my daughter, or
You’re dead, so tell me how.’
They drove all night as Cole or Blight
Gave in for a chance at life,
And pulled up out at the farmhouse
On that monstrous, terrible night.

He kicked the door and he went right in,
And he found Stan sound asleep,
Hit him once with an iron bar, said:
‘That will do, you’ll keep! ’
Elspeth cried as he loosed her chains
Her tears came out in a flood,
She dragged Cole out and she laid him down
His face pressed deep in the mud.

Stan was chained to the pig trough there
For the pigs to work their will,
‘There won’t be anything left of him,
The pigs will think he’s swill.’
They laid a wreath at her mother’s grave
As they both broke down, and cried,
For Elspeth could be a bridesmaid, but
Never again a bride!