Frankie Derwent

Frankie Derwent combines bold improvisation with close attention to other people’s reactions. She admits that her supposed accident was staged to get a line on Roger Bassington-ffrench, not to investigate Moira Nicholson’s husband; later, a spilled cup of coffee helps her identify Moira as the person trying to poison her and Bobby Jones. The same narrative that makes Frankie a resourceful participant in the mystery also brings her investigation to an intimate conclusion: she accepts Bobby’s proposal to travel to Kenya with him.

Identity and Introduction

Frankie is also addressed as Lady Frances Derwent. The evidence presents her not as a distant observer but as an active participant in the investigation, willing to use deception as a practical tool and to act on a rapidly forming suspicion. Her methods are personal and improvisational: she stages an accident to get close to Roger, then reads Moira’s face when a small mishap disrupts the scene around the coffee.

The Staged Accident and the Pursuit of Roger

When Moira asks whether Frankie and Bobby came to investigate her husband, Frankie confirms that the accident was not genuine. The plan had been carefully camouflaged, but its purpose was to get a line on Roger Bassington-ffrench. Frankie’s admission corrects Moira’s suspicion that the staged accident had something to do with her husband, and distinguishes the apparent emergency from the investigation it concealed.

The pursuit continues through a letter from Bobby asking Frankie to follow him to Chipping Somerton and come to Tudor Cottage. He advises her to travel by train rather than use the conspicuous Green Bentley, gives minute directions, and insists that she tell no one. Frankie crushes the letter excitedly and takes its instructions as a sign that the plan is proceeding. The message makes their partnership concrete: Bobby is already on the trail, while Frankie is summoned to join him under conditions designed to protect their secrecy.

Exposing Moira’s Attempt

At the Vicarage, Frankie turns an apparent interruption into a test. When she jogs Bobby’s elbow and makes him spill his coffee, she sees Moira’s face and realizes that Moira put something in their cups while sending them to the door to look for Roger. Frankie says that she will have the coffee analyzed by George Arbuthnot, and names Moira as the culprit, calling attention to her assumed identity as Mrs Nicholson or Mrs Templeton. She also points to Mrs Roberts as someone who could identify Moira at Marchbolt Vicarage.

The coffee sample and Frankie’s appeal to an identifying witness give her accusation both material and personal force. Her deduction depends not on a confession but on the reaction she sees at the door: the spill has made the cups, and the possibility of testing them, newly significant. Moira’s face changes into rage, and she fumbles in her handbag. Frankie’s quick reading of that response marks the reversal from concealed danger to an openly exposed adversary.

Relationship with Bobby and Ending

The final conversation shifts Frankie and Bobby’s partnership from investigation to courtship. Bobby raises the prospect of people going to Kenya, and Frankie answers that she would go—then makes clear that she means she will. Bobby admits that he has long been keen on her but had believed his feelings hopeless. Frankie connects his earlier rudeness on the golf links to that disappointment, and he confirms that it came from feeling miserable.

Bobby also admits that Moira’s face had affected him. Frankie responds generously, even while comparing Moira’s face with her own. The exchange acknowledges a moment of emotional distraction without displacing the mutual commitment now being made: Frankie’s readiness to go to Kenya meets Bobby’s long-suppressed attachment with an unequivocal answer.