The Silent Companions

Another wooden figure appears next to the first. It is a farmer boy with a sad face (it is later revealed to resemble the Romani boy Hetta befriends). Elsie has no idea how it got there; something about its face disturbs her. After the incident with the nursery, Elsie is concerned about her mental health. She thinks, “Perhaps it was the grief making her see things? Grief worked strangely on the mind […]” (87).

Overcome with anxiety about preparing the house for the baby, Elsie goes to Rupert’s library to write a letter requesting help opening the garret. In a desk drawer, Elsie finds a velvet pouch containing a diamond necklace and a note from Rupert. The note is addressed to her and explains that the necklace is a family heirloom and a gift to her. The letter also reveals that Rupert had planned to make many improvements to The Bridge, including getting the garret opened, before bringing Elsie there for the birth and that Rupert had heard the sawing noises coming from the garret. Elsie cries and rips the note in half.

Anne worries the unusually wet weather will prevent the king and queen from visiting. While Hetta works in her garden, Anne instructs the gardener to plant thistles in honor of the king’s visit (the thistle is Scotland’s symbol, and Charles I’s ancestry was Scottish). The gardener refuses because thistles are invasive weeds, so Anne asks Hetta if she will grow them. Hetta can’t speak because she has a differently shaped tongue, but she signals assent. Anne also asks her to grow herbs for the royal visitors’ food. Hetta learned to garden from Anne but has far surpassed Anne’s knowledge. Anne herself learned plant medicine from her sister, Mary. She used tisane root to get pregnant with Hetta, but she worries that interfering with nature caused Hetta’s disability. Others think Hetta’s “aberration” is demonic.

Elsie and Sarah travel to Torbury St Jude to purchase new dresses for Sarah and have the diamond necklace cleaned. Elsie can’t wear the necklace or colored dresses until her year of mourning has passed, but she needs new dresses to accommodate her growing belly. Elsie confirms that Sarah saw the nursery the same way she did, and they both discuss whether they are “going mad.” Sarah has also seen the second companion. The splinter wound on her hand isn’t getting better.

When the women return to the Bridge, Mr. Underwood is there to deliver the village cow Elsie is adopting, which she names Beatrice. Elsie invites Mr. Underwood inside for tea and notices scattered wood shavings and scrape marks on the floor, as if something heavy was pushed across it. Moreover, the two companions have moved from the Great Hall to the parlor.

Mr. Underwood praises Elsie’s willingness to help the villagers despite their fear of the estate. He explains that Anne Bainbridge was considered a witch, and Sarah says that she read in the diary that Anne was skilled in plant medicine. Mr. Underwood desires to open a school where he can educate the villagers and remedy the medieval ignorance that fueled witch hunts. Sarah pledges to help, including making a monetary donation.

While the conversation is going on, Elsie looks at the girl companion; its striking resemblance to her makes her nauseous, and she runs from the room to vomit. Helen attends to Elsie and asks to speak with her about the nursery. She explains that strange things began to happen when Rupert returned to the estate. Both Helen and Rupert saw the word “Mother” written in the dust inside the room.

Josiah brings Anne a lavish diamond necklace to wear for the royal visit. She feels uncertain about wearing it, but he commands her always to wear it and tells her that the necklace will become a family heirloom. Anne remembers that Mary once told her diamonds “ward off the evil eye […] protect you from the darkest magic” (107), and she wonders if that’s why he gave them to her.

Anne and Jane travel to Torbury St Jude to look in a new shop for items to decorate the house for the visit. A great wind blows when they arrive, and Anne feels apprehensive about entering the strange emporium. The shop owner, Samuels, shows Anne many interesting items, but she is captivated by a realistic wooden cutout of a woman. Samuels explains that he purchased the figure and others like it, which he calls “silent companions,” in Amsterdam. Painted with the trompe l’oeil technique, meaning “trick of the eye,” the life-size figures look like real humans. Samuels presses Anne to purchase his collection, as he thinks they would entertain the queen, so she buys the entire lot.

Mabel comes to Elsie one day to say that the female figure’s eyes moved while she was cleaning in the room; she refuses to have anything to do with the art. Elsie goes to investigate and finds that the companions are now in the Great Hall; she scolds the maids for moving the figures, but they both deny having moved them. The boy figure’s gaze haunts Elsie, but she implores the maids to stop being foolish and tells Helen to move the boy companion into the cellar until Elsie can get someone to open the garret so they can put it back. Elsie then sends Mabel to bed, thinking she hasn’t fully recovered from her fall. On her way out, however, Mabel asks what to do about the third figure. Elsie gasps when she sees a third companion: an old woman holding a child, which Helen says she found in the room earlier that day. The woman’s face is terrifying, and Elsie demands it be removed.

Josiah decides Hetta isn’t ready to be presented during the royal visit. Anne is hurt and infuriated and accuses him of calling their child flawed. Anne believes Hetta is a miracle because the doctor told her she couldn’t have any more children after their last son was born.

As evidence of Hetta’s lack of refinement, Josiah points out the window: A Romani boy is in the garden with Hetta. Anne rushes out to tell him to leave. He has come to inquire about working in the barn with the horses. Anne intimates that no one trusts Romani people and that she would risk her family’s standing by hiring him, but he defends himself, saying he’s never stolen anything. When Anne asks him to leave again, Hetta becomes angry and grabs her mother’s leg. Without thinking, Anne slaps Hetta, and she begins crying. Hetta chases after the boy, and Anne can see they have developed a way to talk using sign language. Feeling sorry for her daughter, Anne hires the boy.

Elsie checks on Mabel, who is in bed but still convinced she saw the companion’s eyes move. Elsie wonders if she has a fever, remembering how her mother hallucinated when she had typhus. Mabel insists she has a firm grasp on reality and is frightened by what she saw. She is also frustrated that she is not working, so Elsie offers to train her as her lady’s maid while she is recuperating. Mabel accepts.

Dr. Shepherd escorts Elsie through the halls, but because she is on stronger drugs, everything she sees frightens her. She thinks about how she has purposely thrown food and behaved violently toward the staff so that they would place her in solitary confinement.

Dr. Shepherd broaches the topic of her father’s death, but Elsie doesn’t want to discuss it. The doctor reads from the police report that Elsie witnessed a fire break out in the match factory. Her father raced to the scene with water but tripped and fell into the circular saw. Witnessing the grisly scene traumatized young Elsie, and she scarred her hands trying to put out the flames. The doctor details how her mother’s mental health was impacted and suggests that mental illness runs in the family. Though she is frightened, the doctor says of her trauma, “There is no hiding from it […]” (130), and she knows she must tell her story.

Elsie, Sarah, and the staff attend Advent services at the church and are appalled at the disheveled appearance of the building. Elsie hasn’t had much use for church since her father died, and she feels the villagers judge her for being there. Elsie feels the baby move for the first time, and Sarah places her hand on her belly to feel it. The sensation causes Elsie to feel like her body has been taken over by something, and she doesn’t like the feeling.

On the walk home from church, Helen peppers Elsie with questions about hiring more staff when the baby arrives. Elsie notices that Helen speaks often of Rupert and that the maid likely felt connected to him since she was the one who found his body. Helen asks why Elsie always wears her gloves, and Elsie explains that her hands were burned in a fire. Helen brings up the nursery again, saying she once saw the phrase “Mother hurt me […]” spelled in the dust (136). Elsie doesn’t wish to speak of it again and suggests that the writing was a trick by Mabel, though Helen notes that Mabel can’t write. When they reach the house, Mabel points fearfully toward a window: Elsie sees the girl companion through the window, and there’s a child’s muddy handprint on the inside of the glass. When Elsie inspects it, she sees the girl’s eyes move.

Sarah discovers a 1630 painting of Anne Bainbridge and her daughter, Henrietta, in the house and shows it to Elsie: Hetta resembles the girl companion. Sarah explains what she has learned about Hetta from the diary and suggests conducting a séance. Elsie dismisses the idea. Suddenly, they hear Mabel screaming; they rush to her, and she accuses Elsie of putting a companion in her room. Elsie goes to investigate and sees the new companion: a woman brushing her hair. She shuts the door in fear before rejoining the others, at which point she notices that Mabel is wearing Elsie’s necklace. Mabel claims she was warming the jewels, as she’d heard lady’s maids do, but Elsie shouts at her to remove it. Sarah goes to collect the second diary, as workers have just forced the garret door open. She returns pale-faced and tells Elsie that Hetta was in the garret.

Elsie orders all the companions to be chopped up and burned. Sarah begs to keep the Hetta figure, and Elsie relents because Hetta is family. Elsie strikes the match and sets fire to the pile of dismembered companions, watching the paint melt.