Review: The Companion by Kim Taylor Blackmore

Synopsis:   They say she’s a murderess. She claims she’s innocent. But Lucy has been known to tell lies…   1855, New Hampshire. Lucy Blunt is set to hang for a double murder. Murderess or victim? Only Lucy knows the truth.

In the shadow of the gallows, Lucy reflects on the events that led to her bitter downfall—from the moment she arrived at the rambling Burton mansion looking for work and a better life to the grisly murders themselves.

In a mysterious household of locked doors and forbidden affections, Lucy slips comfortably into the shadows, where she believes the indiscretions of her past will remain hidden. But when Lucy’s rising status becomes a threat to the mistress’s current companion, the delicate balance of power and loyalty begins to shift, setting into motion a brewing storm of betrayal, suspicion, and rage.

Now, with her execution looming closer, Lucy’s allies fight to have her sentence overturned as the tale she’s spinning nears its conclusion. But how much of her story can we trust? After all, Lucy’s been known to bend the truth… 

The story opens in 1855, New Hampshire State Prison with the opening, haunting, narrative .....  "Count the bodies. One. Two. Three if we count Mary Dawson. Four is we count my Ned ........All blamed on me."

Immediately - we ask ourselves - how, why. Lucy begins to cast her mind back to events that have led to her awaiting her fate at the end of a hangman's noose. "Truth is a rather pliable object .... something molded and recreated and told as an entertaining story"

Lucy's story moves back and forward, between past events and the present, as she relates to the readers of how she came to work for the Burtons as a maid; her rise through the ranks and her rivalry with Mrs Burton's current companion, and her ultimate fall from grace.

But first, a little more on the backdrop. New Hampshire in the 1840s & 1850s was still recovering from a cholera like disease referred to as the "summer complaint" as well as an outbreak of smallpox. The mortality rate was high, especially among infants and the disadavanated. However, cities like Manchester and Concord were flourishing with the growing milling (paper and pulp) and manufacturing (textiles, garments, cotton) industries; the construction of a new railroad and canal network only added to economic growth. The mills of Manchester attracted a large transient immigrant population to cope with the demand for workers - for example, further south at Dover's Cocheco Mills, approx 400 women were employed. In Concord, the city was becoming gentrified with the creation of paved streets and large avenues, and the introduction of gas lighting in 1853. Both the political and social scene was changing. The cities was emerging from the popular temperance movement which led to the Prohibitory Act of 1850 - and the state was ahead of its time with its anti-slavery stance (1840s). And on a slighter sadder note, the opening of the new railroad coincided with the opening of Concords new insane asylum.

So to Lucy's position in the Burton household. She initially arrives as a maid - a general servant. How she comes to know of the vacancy is never fully explained.  Whatever position a female servant held, the days were long, monotonous, and exhausting. Depending on the rules of the mistress of the house, they could be working from the early hours until late at night with very little breaks. The hierarchy involved meant that often lower servants were under the direction of other servants who were hopefully mentors, but not always. The cook, who could be either male or female, has complete control of the kitchen. In smaller residences with no housekeeper, some of the duties could also include other areas of the house. 

But Lucy aspires to more - she is envious of the position and person of Mrs Burton's companion - Rebecca - and determined to ensure her change of status within the household. So how different were the roles of lady's companion from your run-of-the-mill maid. A lady's companion was not regarded as a servant, but neither was she really treated as an equal. Only women from a class background similar to or only a little below that of their employer would be considered for the position, and they took positions as companions if they had no other means of support. The companion's role was to spend her time with her employer, providing company and conversation, to help her to entertain guests and often to accompany her to social events. In return she would be given a room in the family's part of the house, rather than the servants' quarters; all of her meals would be provided, and she would eat with her employer; and she would be paid a small salary, which would be called an "allowance" – never "wages". She would not be expected to perform any domestic duties which her employer might not carry out herself, in other words little other than giving directions to servants, fancy sewing and pouring tea. Thus the role was not very different from that of an adult relation in respect of the lady of a household, except for the essential subservience resulting from financial dependency.

At first we are on the side of Lucy as she navigates the delicate politics of the household, but as she shares her recollections of the past begin, our view starts to cloud and we find ourselves wondering just how likable a heroine she really is. Is Lucy's past beginning to catch up with her? Isabelle Beeton, in her Book of Household Management (published 1861), discusses the perils of not obtaining a servant's references: ".. it is not well to be guided by a written one from some unknown quarter; but it is better to have an interview, if at all possible, with the former mistress." She also suggests the lady of the house ensures all her servants know their place and what is expected of them .. " Every portion of work which the maid will have to do, should be plainly stated by the mistress, and understood by the servant. If this plan is not carefully adhered to domestic contention is almost certain to ensue, and this may not be easily settled ..."   And thus it is with the introduction of another maid, hen the household dynamic once again changes, that we begin to see a darker side to Lucy and wonder if she is not so innocent after all. 

The build up is slow - but not laboriously so - the scene is being carefully crafted, the characters develop and change the further we are drawn into the story. Events pass before us, fleeting hints of what is yet to come.  Then we have our "aha" moment as the scattered clues and hints have now coalesced, and Lucy's imminent fall is only pages away. The tension both inside the household and for the reader is palpable. The opening lines begin to make sense now.  But still, who is Lucy Blunt - the question eludes us until the final pages.

The more I read, the more I kept thinking this has shades of Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" or Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca"- it is more of a gothic novel rather than a straight up mystery. 

The final word goes to Lucy Blunt: "Names are curious inventions.  They can stand for nothing and everything, be dropped and forgotten, or fought for to the death.  I put them on like cloaks and discarded them when they started to wear thin and let in the cold."