The Silent Companions

by Laura Purcell · 2017

When newly‑wed Elsie Bainbridge is widowed just weeks after her wedding, she is sent to the crumbling country estate of The Bridge to await the birth of her child. The house is hostile—resentful servants, suspicious villagers, and a distant, awkward cousin who claims to be her only ally. Yet the true source of dread lies behind a locked door: a painted wooden figure, a Silent Companion, that bears an uncanny resemblance to Elsie herself. As the figure’s eyes seem to follow her, secrets from a two‑century‑old diary surface, and the estate’s dark history begins to close in. Laura Purcell weaves a Victorian ghost story that creeps into the mind, turning superstition into an unsettling reality and forcing Elsie to confront the terrifying possibility that the house—and its silent companions—may know more about her fate than she ever imagined.