The Hireling 1973

Set in and around Bath, Somerset, in the immediate aftermath of the First World War, the story unfolds at an upscale countryside mental clinic and in the town of Bath. The young, recently widowed Lady Franklin Sarah Miles is being discharged, and Steven Ledbetter Robert Shaw, a former sergeant-major who owns a smart hire car, drives her to Bath to see her unsympathetic mother. Hired to take her on outings, he becomes the one person she can talk to as she slowly climbs out of a deep depression.

At a boxing night at a boys’ club that Ledbetter helps run, she meets another committee member, the young former officer Cantrip Peter Egan. Like Ledbetter, Cantrip is trying to return to normalcy after wartime trauma, particularly in politics. Cantrip begins to court the wealthy Lady Franklin while still sleeping with his lover Connie Petra Markham, who is likely a war widow, adding a layer of complication to the fragile social circle around them.

Ledbetter’s mental balance grows increasingly fragile. His business is faltering, his casual relationship with the waitress Doreen Christine Hargreaves offers little real happiness, and his deepening affection for Lady Franklin remains unreturned. His growing rage is intensified by Cantrip’s apparent success and by Connie’s entanglement with the man who seems to be stepping into Ledbetter’s own circle of influence and affection.

When he finally confronts Cantrip and Lady Franklin together, they tell him he has no place in their lives because they have become engaged. He storms to his Rolls-Royce, swigs repeatedly from a bottle, and drives back to his garage, unleashed in a blurring, dangerous romp of impulsive motion. He crashes through the courtyard walls, reverses, and wheels around in a frenzy, acting like an animal in a cage as the tension of loss, pride, and rejection comes to a head.