The Actress

Suspect: Florence "Florrie" Potts

Age: None of your business

            On the Sunday afternoon of the garden party at Welford Hall, Florrie Potts was carrying a tray of teacups onto the lawn when a severed foot fell out of the sky and landed on her. Anyone might expect the young woman to be a quivering mess of nerves after that. But with her love of drama she's rather enjoying all the attention.

            Not only is Florrie the head housemaid at Welford Hall, as she will eagerly tell you, she is also the only housemaid now that Pace, the butler, has succeeded in getting the under-housemaids dismissed. She also likes to tell anybody who will listen that she is worked off her feet in that house, but that does not stop her indulging in illicit romantic liaisons, as well as practicing her elocution lessons for a future life on the music hall stage. Yes, she's ambitious and not about to be held back by her humble beginnings. Florrie Potts is going places and anybody who gets in her way will be sorry.

            Everybody knows that the housemaid has a temper and a bold determination to get what she wants in life, but would she go so far as murder? Could Lady Isolda have discovered one of Florrie's secrets and threatened to turn her out on her ear?

            Unlike most servants, Florrie is not afraid to speak up for herself and she does not much care for rules, whereas her ladyship is a stickler for them. So why has the housemaid remained at Welford Hall so long?  What, exactly, is Florrie up to and with whom?

            She's keen to tell the detective her version of events and help out in any way she can. For instance, she advises him to question that haughty, pious butler because he definitely knows something. And then there is that "fancy cake woman" who brought her three-tiered chocolate creation to the house on the afternoon of the murder. Now there is a stranger that nobody knows anything about. Oh, yes, Florrie has plenty of suggestions for the detective when it comes to suspects.

            The housemaid, Detective Inspector Deverell decides, might be cheerfully forthcoming with the ideas, but she's still holding something back. He knows she certainly was not where she said she was for most of that fateful afternoon, nor was she doing anything she was supposed to be doing. Florrie, it seems, is already acting a part and relishing her moment in the footlights, but will she eventually slip up and forget her lines?

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Find out what Miss Potts has been up to on February 20th, when "BESPOKE" comes to all the best online bookstores.  

 

(Image used here: George Goodwin Kilburne: The New Arrangement , before1924)