Sarah Lacey

In the short story The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, Sarah Lacey was the grand daughter of Colonel Horace Lacey and his wife Mrs Emmeline Lacey. Sarah's father had died during the First World War. Her mother had died during childbirth. Sarah had been raised by her grandparents who had always left her as free as possible.

Unfortunately, according to Mrs Lacey, Sarah had got in with "the coffee-bar set", lived on dingy rooms in Chelsea, wore what her grandparents considered "funny clothes" with black or bright green stockings. More recently, Sarah had become interested in Desmond Lee-Wortley who Mrs Lacey felt had an extremely bad reputation.

Mrs Lacey had invited Sarah and Desmond to Kings Lacey to experience a traditional "old-fashioned" English Christmas. Let Sarah see Desmond in our atmosphere and our house and after that Desmond might seem less interesting to her. In addition, Mrs Lacey had invited Poirot to the house party in the hope that he might discover something "useful" about Desmond.

Sarah affected a defiant attitude but had genuine affection for her grandparents especially her grandmother. As it turned out, she enjoyed the traditional Christmas, wanted to go to midnight mass and had fun putting up Christmas decorations although Desmond did not like any of these activities.

When Poirot had exposed Desmond as a jewel thief, he commented that all ended well. "Except for me," Sarah had replied. She had lost Desmond. Poirot disagreed, Sarah had gained experience and that was always valuable.

Portrayals
Sarah Lacey was played by Helena Michell in the film adaptation of the story in Series 3 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot. She did not have the appearance or style of dress described in the original story. She had a larger role in the adaptation as Poirot sent her out in the morning to warn Prince Farouk (and presumably Mr Jesmond of Desmond Lee-Wortley's attempt to escape. At the end of the episode, she was paired off with David Welwyn.