The Silent Companions

Jolyon sends Elsie back to The Bridge to attend to the matter of Mabel’s death. She reportedly died in an accident with a meat cleaver in the kitchen, though Elsie wonders if she died by suicide. Seeing the crumbling manor house again fills Elsie with dread, and she is convinced that something about the house is evil. As the carriage draws closer, Elsie sees a companion resembling her dead mother in the window. Peters doesn’t see a figure in the window and suggests that Elsie lie down and rest. Instead, Elsie runs to find the figure while her mind is flooded with memories from the past—especially the fact that her mother never helped her, even when she was bleeding. She thinks, “She never should have done it. She never would have had to do it if Ma had only—” (216). Elsie stumbles into the music room, where deer antlers have impaled Helen on the floor.

Elsie is in her room writing her story. She notes that her body has become used to the drugs, which no longer work. She writes, “Jolyon. Protect Jolyon” (218), her sole focus. However, he hasn’t visited her in the hospital, and she fears he is in trouble.