Miss Lee-Wortley

In the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, Miss Lee-Wortley was the assumed name of a woman who stole a precious ruby from Prince Ali. With her friend and accomplice Desmond Lee-Wortley, they planned to lie low for a while at Kings Lacey. Desmond was going there as a guest of Mrs Emmeline Lacey and he asked if he could bring "his sister" as she just had an operation and he needed to look after her.

When they heard that Poirot was coming to Kings Lacey from Christmas, she needed to avoid being recognised and so feigned illness and spent most of the time in her room, with Desmond taking her meals to her. Most of the domestic staff suspected that the illness was not real.

At the end of the story, she revealed that she and Desmond was supposed to escape to Paris where they would share the proceeds of the theft. Instead, he had chosen to flee and abandon her to face the music. And, of course, she was not really his sister. Throughout the story, she was only known as "Miss Lee-Wortley" and her real name is never given.

Portrayals
Miss Lee-Wortley was played Robyn Moore in the film adaptation of the story in Series 3 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. There, she introduced herself to the guests at Kings Lacey as "Gloria Lee-Wortley". She had stolen the ruby from Prince Farouk, and he knew her as "Iris Moffat" but it is not certain that either "Gloria" or "Iris Moffat" were real names or just assumed ones for the purposes of the crime. Unlike the original story, "Gloria" did not spend the time hiding in her room. She did not seem afraid of being recognised by Poirot. She introduced herself to Poirot and participated fully in the Christmas festivities.