With strange events revolving round the old nursery and the garret, and apparently hallucinatory experiences, Elsie hears about writings that come and go. Sarah is obsessed by finding out about her family history. One looks uncannily like Elsie, they appear to move, with new ones appearing out of thin air, sinister and exuding menace. The house is littered with 'companions' constructed of wood and painting intended to startle, Dutch in origin. Locals believe the house is cursed, once inhabited by a witch, with a history numerous strange deaths and accidents.Įlsie hears strange sounds and hissing which unnerves her. The house leaves a lot to be desired, with two inexperienced maids and Mrs Holt, the housekeeper. She has never been there before, and is accompanied by a spinster companion, Sarah, a poverty stricken relative of her husband. It begins with a pregnant Elsie travelling to a dilapidated country house, The Bridge, where her husband, Rupert, recently died. With a hangman's noose hovering over her, Dr Shepherd slowly gets her to remember what happened which she writes on a slate. It becomes apparent there have been several deaths and she is suspected of murder. She is mute and cannot remember what happened. It begins with a patient, Mrs Elsie Bainbridge, a woman badly burnt in a fire, being questioned by Dr Shepherd, a progressive psychologist at St Joseph's, after a year in which she has been recovering from her injuries.

This is a tantalisingly creepy and menacing gothic horror novel, populated by ghosts, and set in 1866.

The residents of The Bridge are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition-that is, until she notices the figure's eyes following her.Ī Victorian ghost story that evokes a most unsettling kind of fear, this is a tale that creeps its way through the consciousness in ways you least expect-much like the silent companions themselves. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure -a silent companion -that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband's awkward cousin for company. When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. When newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge, what greets her is far from the life of wealth and privilege she was expecting.

The silent companions by laura purcell