The Silent Companions

Laura Purcell, a celebrated British author, is best known for her Gothic and historical fiction novels. Her debut novel, Queen of Bedlam, was published in 2014 and was a breakout success, offering a deep dive into the lives of the Hanoverian monarchs. The Silent Companions, released in 2017, was also a critical and commercial success, making her a prominent voice in contemporary Gothic fiction. The novel follows newly widowed Elsie Bainbridge as she is sent to her late husband’s eerie, crumbling estate, where she discovers lifelike wooden figures that seem to hold a sinister presence. As Elsie tries to unravel the dark secrets of the manor, the novel explores themes of The Isolation and Oppression of Women, The Violence of Class and Social Status, and The Thin Line Between the Supernatural and Reality. The novel won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award in 2018 and was shortlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell. It was also selected for the Radio 2 Book Club and Zoe Ball’s ITV Book Club.

This guide references the 2017 Penguin Random House e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide discuss violence toward women (including implications of rape and incest), child loss, miscarriage, violent death from murder and execution, the mistreatment of someone with a disability, animal abuse, substance use, mental illness, and racism toward a Romani person.

Plot Summary

The story unfolds through the dual perspectives of Elsie Bainbridge in 1865 and her deceased husband’s distant relative, Anne Bainbridge, in 1635.

In 1865, newly widowed and pregnant Elsie arrives at her late husband’s country home, The Bridge. Elsie’s family owns a match factory in London. After her father’s tragic death in a factory accident, Elsie’s brother, Jolyon, took over the management, and a group of investors purchased the factory. One of those investors, Rupert Bainbridge, took an interest in Elsie and married her despite their class difference. However, Rupert died suddenly just before the novel opens, and Elsie has come to The Bridge both for the funeral and to avoid the rumors that Rupert’s unexpected death has caused. Rupert’s unmarried cousin, Sarah, accompanies her, but the home’s decayed, crumbling façade isn’t a welcoming sight. The details surrounding Rupert’s death are still a mystery, and when Elsie examines his body, she sees splinters in his face.

Elsie’s grief over her loss and the home’s depressing pall trigger painful memories of her childhood: It eventually emerges that Elsie’s parents were abusive, which led Elsie herself to engineer her father’s “accident,” starting a fire in the factory and pushing her father into the circular saw. Her mother fell ill with typhus, and Elsie smothered her with a pillow to hasten her death.

In the present, Elsie struggles to balance the social expectations of a grieving widow with planning for the birth of her child. Elsie soon learns that the villagers fear The Bridge because of its mysterious history. According to lore, tragic deaths have occurred in the house, and a distant family member was reportedly a witch. Soon after arriving, Elsie hears strange sawing sounds at night and finds sawdust on the floor. Elsie and Sarah investigate the sounds, which are coming from the garret. Inside, they find a two-volume diary belonging to Anne Bainbridge and a life-size wooden cutout of a girl who looks like Elsie as a child (it is later revealed to be Hetta). Sarah takes one volume of the diary to learn more about her family and asks to have the figure brought downstairs. The house’s staff is terrified of the figure, but Elsie dismisses their fears until strange and inexplicable events occur. The figure seems to move independently, and soon, more begin to appear, beginning with one that resembles a Romani boy.

Sarah reads the diary and learns that Anne purchased the “silent companions”—the term the shop owner used to describe the figures—in 1635 in preparation for a visit from the king and queen. Anne and her husband, Josiah, had three sons and one daughter, Hetta. Anne, who sometimes dabbled in white magic, had conceived Hetta after mixing a potion, and Hetta was born with a differently shaped tongue, leaving her unable to speak; Anne believed that Hetta’s lack of speech was a punishment for Anne’s tampering with God’s plan. As the royal visit approached, Hetta spent much of her time with the companions. Her only other friend was a Romani boy named Merripen, and Anne allowed the boy to work in the stables but didn’t tell Josiah. However, Hetta became upset when Josiah didn’t allow Hetta to participate in the visit’s festivities due to his shame regarding her disability. Tensions escalated further when the queen’s horse was brutally mutilated: Merripen was blamed, and Josiah saw that he was caught, tried, and executed for treason. Soon afterward, Anne found Hetta in the nursery, surrounded by the silent companions, apparently having strangled her nurse, Lizzy. Anne stabbed Hetta, believing she was a demon. Anne was later accused of being a witch and burned at the stake.

Elsie and Sarah become more isolated and frightened as they delve further into the past. To improve The Bridge’s reputation, Elsie adopts a scrawny cow with hopes of fattening it and providing its milk and cream to the villagers. However, someone murders the cow and places its head in a box for Elsie to discover. In her shock, Elsie falls down the stairs and miscarries; the baby is born full of splinters.

Jolyon takes Elsie back to London to recover, but when they get word that Mabel, one of the maids, is dead, Elsie returns to investigate. As soon as she arrives, she finds the body of Helen, the house’s other maid, impaled by a stag head. Though others, including Sarah, see the phenomena, Jolyon believes that Elsie’s grief has caused her to develop a mental illness and plans to send her to a psychiatric hospital. Before he can do so, he falls through a window and dies. While Sarah goes to fetch the police, Elsie finds the housekeeper, Mrs. Holt, dead at the end of a noose. Terrified, she runs through the house until she encounters a companion that resembles her father. The figure jumps into the fire, and the flames quickly consume the house. Elsie escapes but is badly burned and can’t speak.

Elsie is committed to St Joseph’s Hospital. The police task a doctor named Shepherd with getting Elsie to tell her story and determine who is at fault for the deaths at The Bridge. Gradually, Elsie tells her story through writing. Dr. Shepherd believes Elsie was hallucinating due to her repressed childhood trauma. Moreover, he cannot find a record of Sarah Bainbridge to corroborate Elsie’s story.

Sarah unexpectedly comes to visit Elsie just as the latter finishes telling her story. However, when the woman arrives, it isn’t Sarah but Hetta, and she is wearing the diamond necklace. She accuses Elsie of being a murderess, dooming her to be executed by hanging.