Rose Sheldon

In the novel At Bertram's Hotel, Rose Sheldon is a chambermaid employed at Bertram's Hotel, whose previous work was as an actress.

When Miss Marple first meets Rose, she feels that Rose is a real chambermaid who looks unreal. Miss Marple is impressed with her "striped lavender print dress", "freshly laundered cap", and smiling, rosy, positively countrified face", and wonders where the hotel finds such people.

Rose tells Miss Marple that she has worked at Bertram's Hotel for just over three years, and had previously worked at a hotel in Eastbourne. She says that the hotel in Eastbourne was very modern and up to date, but she prefers an old-fashioned place like Bertram's.

Later in the novel, Chief Inspector Davy says that he wants to question Rose in connection with the disappearance of Canon Pennyfather. Mr Humfries seems disturbed by this, and tells Miss Gorringe that she had "better have a word with her first".

Rose tells Chief Inspector Davy that the last time she saw Canon Pennyfather was the morning of the day he left the hotel, as she was not on duty in the afternoon, and he was not in his room when she came on duty again at 6 o'clock.

Rose mentions that Canon Pennyfather left two suitcases in his room, which he was keeping on. She is calm and competent while speaking to Chief Inspector Davy, until he asks her about the Canon's BEA bag. He asks if the Canon had come back to the hotel, and left it behind with his other luggage, and she says she is not sure, but she believes he did. Chief Inspector Davy believes that his question rattled her, because she had not been briefed on what the correct answer was.

Portrayals
In the BBC 1987 adaptation of the novel, Rose is portrayed by Kate Duchêne. Like in the original novel, here Miss Marple is also suspicious that Rose is not genuine. He tells Chief Inspector Davy that she had trained many maids but she had never seen "a bob curtsey like that since the St. Mary Mead players put on a French farce." Like in the original, Rose was questioned by Chief Inspector Davy (with Inspector Campbell in this adaptation). Davy also tripped her up over the matter of Canon Pennyfather's B.O.A.C. overnight bag leading him to surmise that her superiors (in whatever criminal gang she might be in) had not coached her thoroughly. In this adaptation, her stage background is not mentioned.