One of the wild ones

One of the wild ones

by marlies|dekkers

“Baby, don’t-cha know that it’s rude, to keep my two lips waitin’ when they’re in the mood,” the Socialite sang, kicking up her heels. Darling, what a roll she’d been on! Paris, London, Rome… And everywhere, the same routine: champagne, caviar, diamonds disappearing into her suitcases. Oh, she knew he was watching her. But the diamonds were already in Moscow, and she was about to pull a Colt out of her stocking. Foolish boy. “In the mood,” she sang and laughed out loud.

Sophisticated, swashbuckling and irresistibly sexy; Agatha Christie’s Socialite is a wolverine in sheep’s clothing, or rather, leopard suspenders. Only twice did Agatha make her stoic Belgian detective Hercule Poirot fall in love, and both times they were flamboyant socialites. There was the larger-than-life Lady Bess Sedgewick who Agatha describes as ‘the second best-dressed woman in Europe who lived life to the full’. Juicy detail: this Lady was also the brains behind a gang of train and bank robbers. Hercule was besotted with the whole package. “Everything about Bess was positive. Her vitality, her energy, her magnetic attraction,” Agatha wrote. Then there was Countess Rossakoff, another aristocratic jet-setter with a swashbuckling secret. This flamboyant Russian Leopard Lady stole not only Hercule’s heart, but also millions worth of jewels. It was as if Agatha couldn’t help but fantasize about all the deliciously naughty things a Socialite could get away with, both criminally and romantically.

“She’s a woman in a thousand… One of the wild ones…” (Hercule Poirot in ‘At Betram’s Hotel’)

 

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