Hetty Lessing

Warning: Spoilers!

Hetty Lessing is a maid at Fallingford Estate, the family home of George, Margaret, Albert and Daisy Wells. She appears in Arsenic for Tea, First Class Murder, in a telephone conversation in Cream Buns and Crime, and Death Sets Sail. She also appears briefly in one of the stories in Once Upon a Crime.

She is the maid of all work at Fallingford. During First Class Murder she was briefly the personal maid to Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong, employed by Hazel's father to keep them out of trouble. She seems to want to become a secretary in the future.

## Hetty Lessing

### Aliases

Miss Lessing (by Vincent Wong)Henrietta Lessing (possibly)

## Childhood

Little is known about Hetty's childhood, but it can be inferred that she does not come from a wealthy background. She came to work at Fallingford as a maid at some point between the ages of fourteen (the youngest women could legally go into service in the 1930s) and nineteen (the oldest she could be in Arsenic for Tea). She became good friends with Daisy Wells, the daughter of the house, who thinks she is a good egg.

## Storylines

### Arsenic for Tea

Hetty is the maid at Fallingford, Daisy's home. She is ruled out as a suspect in the murder due to not being at the fatal tea party.

### First Class Murder

Hetty is hired by Vincent Wong to keep Daisy and Hazel out of trouble. She tells Daisy and Hazel how things are at Fallingford following the tragic events of Arsenic for Tea. She dislikes how unrigorous Dr Sandwich is, and agrees to keep the evidence the Detective Society finds a secret, lest he get his hands on it and bungles up the investigation. She warns Daisy and Hazel in Morse Code when someone is coming while they're investigating.

### Cream Buns and Crime

In *The Case of the Blue Violet*, Daisy telephones Hetty to ask her to find some evidence to solve the case. Daisy can hear Chapman breathing and knows he is listening in, so tells Hetty to borrow the money to find it out from him, to punish him for eavesdropping.

### Death Sets Sail

Hetty, like the rest of the servants at Fallingford, is distraught at Daisy's 'death.' When Mrs Doherty's brooch goes missing, the cook/housekeeper reveals that Hetty is saving up for a secretarial course, but does not consider her a suspect as she trusts her. Hetty joins in the hunt for the brooch and mentions during it that she is 20 (which, it being Christmas 1936, means she was born in 1916).

### Once Upon a Crime

Hetty appears very briefly in *The Case of the Second Scream*. She was mentioned as packing away Daisy and Hazel's things so that they could go to Deepdean, which suggests that she hadn't yet started her secretarial course as of April 1937.

## Personality

Daisy notes that Hetty would make an excellent member of the Detective Society if she were not a grown up. Hetty seems to be an open and friendly person, but is very clever and has a secretive side, as she did not reveal her secretarial course to anyone.

## Relationships

Daisy Wells-Hetty is clearly very fond of Daisy, and is one of the few people Daisy truly likes and shows her true self around.

Mrs Doherty-Hetty is shown to trust Mrs Doherty, and they seem very friendly together.

## Appearance

Hetty has frizzy red hair and freckles. In First Class Murder it was noted she was wearing a new straw boater.