In Sherlock Holmes’s “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches,” the governess is named Violet Hunter.
Violet Hunter visits Holmes before accepting a position at the Copper Beeches, the Hampshire home of Jephro Rucastle. She is offered unusually high pay and is asked to follow strange instructions, including wearing a particular dress and cutting her hair. These conditions make Holmes suspicious, although Hunter decides to take the job.
At the Rucastle house, Hunter discovers that the family’s disturbing behavior is connected to a hidden prisoner and a scheme involving Rucastle’s daughter, Alice. Holmes and Watson eventually travel to the house after Hunter sends an urgent message.
The story appeared in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1892. Violet Hunter is not a detective or a client who merely reports a crime afterward; her employment as a governess places her directly inside the danger.