50 pages • 1 hour read
Helen SimonsonThe Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 25-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, addiction, and death.
Constance goes to Mrs. Fog’s room and sees Percival, who has an appointment with Mrs. Fog. He confronts her about the de Champneys, sneering at their “mixed bloodline.” Percival insists that maintaining the relationship will prevent Mrs. Fog from visiting Rachel. He advises against the marriage but says that if she chooses to live quietly and away from the Mercer estate, the damage can be mitigated. He asks Mrs. Fog to confirm that Lady Mercer is not Simon’s daughter, and Mrs. Fog assures him that she is not. Constance believes that Rachel will reject Percival when she learns of his conduct, but he alludes to her pregnancy and suggests that it is in her best interest to marry immediately. After he leaves, Mrs. Fog tells Constance to say nothing to Rachel because there is nothing to be done. Poppy tells Constance that Captain Pendra is actually the son of the late Maharajah of Kochi Benar. Captain Pendra is now the new Maharajah.
Chapter 26 Summary
When Constance arrives at Penneston, the estate is bustling with preparations for the ball. Harris finds Jock drunk and the plane’s engine disassembled. Iris calls it sabotage, and Constance fetches Tilly. Poppy and Tilly are attempting to place the wounded veterans in the ladies’ sidecars for the parade, as no one arranged for their transportation. Tilly agrees to help with the plane, and they think that Tom is responsible for Jock’s condition. Tilly gets the engine running. Just before they take off, Harris realizes how deeply his feelings for Constance run.
Chapter 27 Summary
Klaus is confused about why the committee would want to simulate war to celebrate peace. The flying contest will parody an attack on the German U-boat as Klaus waves the white flag. The parade passes, and the women of the Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club drive the wounded men, creating a stir. Klaus sees the young Maharajah come out to shake hands with every veteran, forcing the mayor to do the same. Harris and Tom are supposed to drop bags of colored flour onto the U-boat to simulate bombs, but Tom’s plane opens a canister of water, blood, and fish guts just as it passes over Klaus, befouling him and the sub’s deck. The Sopwith Camel’s engine stops working midair. Harris maneuvers the plane to a cricket pitch and lands safely. A stray branch cracks Constance’s goggles and cuts her brow, so she cannot see, but he quickly ushers her away from the plane. Harris has lost the wager with Tom.
Chapter 28 Summary
The doctor tends to Constance, cleaning and stitching up her cut. His attention to her feels predatory, however, and she declines to undress for an exam. Lady Mercer arrives to condemn her for her behavior, saying that she should not attend Rachel’s wedding now; she hopes that Constance will use the time to consider her “outrageous” actions and their impact on others. Constance goes to the wedding but sits in the back, unobserved. Afterward, Poppy informs her that she was unanimously voted in as the club’s newest full member.
Chapter 29 Summary
Harris and Constance flirt as they greet arrivals at the ball. Lady Mercer speaks snidely to Constance, who now feels calm and brave. Constance and Harris dance, and she promises to save him all her waltzes. The de Champneys arrive, upsetting Lady Mercer, but Mrs. Fog says that she kept her word that she wouldn’t see them until after Rachel’s wedding. Percival demands that Rachel leave, followed by a flustered Lady Mercer. After they go, Harris asks Constance to meet him in the conservatory. Before he arrives, Evangeline tells Constance that she intends to renew her engagement to Harris. Evangeline suggests that Poppy befriended Constance only to present Harris with “another girl to tempt his eye” (386). When Harris enters, he sees Constance run off, and Evangeline asks for his forgiveness. He realizes that he never demanded that she release him from their engagement, so it would be ungentlemanly for him to end it now. She suggests that they tell his mother immediately.
Chapter 30 Summary
Poppy learns about Evangeline and Harris, and she apologizes to Constance. Harris will be a full partner in Hazelbourne Aviation now, and Poppy plans to accept Tom’s long-standing proposal of marriage. She claims to love him, and she thinks that it might be “more acceptable” for her to run the club as a married woman. Poppy says that she never meant to cause Constance heartbreak, but Constance realizes that, like summer beach chairs, “she too had been welcome for a short time but ha[s] now served her purpose” (392). Mrs. Wirrall presents Tom with his trophy, but Jock arrives, calling Tom a cheat. He says that someone put sugar in the plane’s reserve tank, a sabotage that could have resulted in Harris’s and Constance’s deaths. Tom admits that he did it but that he only meant to prevent the contest from happening, and Sam escorts Tom from the party. Mrs. Wirrall presents the cup to Harris, who gives it to Constance. After the press of well-wishers, she goes outside and sees Klaus climbing into a delivery truck, and she asks for a ride to the hotel. They pull up behind the building, and Klaus walks Constance to the front, but a group of drunk men harass and insult him. Constance sees Sam and Tom and begs them to help Klaus, who runs from the mob, and Tom—also drunk—joins the crowd. Constance sees a scuffle between Tom and Klaus before Klaus tumbles backward. Tom insists that Klaus tripped, and his body lies in a heap at the bottom of the kitchen steps.
Chapter 31 Summary
Constance and Mrs. Fog see Rachel off. Constance notices Sam accompanying Tom, in uniform, with a senior officer and military policeman, to the ship. He is being sent to the Russian front and is unlikely to return. He took full responsibility for Klaus’s death, Sam says. Later that day, Mrs. Fog and Simon de Champney are married at the town hall. Mrs. Fog gives Constance her diamond combs and suggests that she use them to purchase a motorcycle. Wirrall’s Conveyance provides an honor guard, with rides home for the three de Champneys and a ride for Constance to Penneston. She reconciles with Poppy and explains that she’s going to live with her brother and his wife, who is pregnant. The club surprises her with a going-away party.
Epilogue Summary
Constance’s brother prepares the farm for winter. Constance supports her sister-in-law by doing all the cooking and cleaning. One night, she hears an airplane approaching. Harris arrives and explains that Evangeline left when she learned of his intention to turn Penneston into a hospital. Constance invites him to stay, and he declares his love for her. They kiss.
Chapter 25-Epilogue Analysis
As the novel reaches its conclusion, the narrative increasingly explores the idea of marriage as a traditional “happy ever after” and an often-posed solution to women’s challenges. Through the comparison of the many romantic pairings at the novel’s end, it challenges this idea, indicating that a marriage can only be happy when it is a choice rather than a pragmatic solution. This helps to round off the theme of Social Pressure for Female Respectability, as marriages that promote love over social norms are presented as having the most chance of success. Percival Allerton’s behavior concerning Mrs. Fog and the de Champneys, and his attitude toward Rachel and Lady Mercer, suggest that Rachel’s marriage will not be a happy one. The fact that Rachel must marry him, regardless of his offensive behavior, because she is pregnant is yet another indicator of the social pressure on female respectability and the social inequities that exist between men and women. Percival is racist and so concerned with what his peers will think of his wife that he suggests that Mrs. Fog won’t be welcome at their home. He says to her, “You would plan, I trust, to be discreet in any correspondence with Rachel, and I would rely on your age being a complete impediment to any visits to us?” (340). He insists that, as Mrs. de Champney, she will not be permitted to see her granddaughter. He is so concerned that Rachel could have some Black ancestry that he sent her “photograph, and that of her mother, to a renowned phrenologist in London [who] reports only Anglo-Saxon bone structure and a goodly hint of Norman around the chin” (341). Percival’s use of phrenology—a racist pseudoscience that perpetuates racist myths and tropes—demonstrates that his racism is more important to him than his love for Rachel or his honor as her fiancé. Indeed, he is shown to be completely dishonorable, as he is clearly willing to drop Rachel despite her pregnancy and is using her condition as leverage. He “smirk[s]” when he reminds Mrs. Fog and Constance of this fact and that it is in “Rachel’s interest that [they] marry expediently” (341). The novel emphasizes the historical truth that, should news of her pregnancy precede news of her nuptials, it is only her reputation that will suffer and not his because society insists that women behave “respectably,” while men are not similarly assessed.
Although Rachel is pregnant, Lady Mercer remains—with characteristic hypocrisy—more concerned about Constance’s behavior and how it might affect their family, further highlighting social pressure for female respectability. Lady Mercer personifies this attitude and its emphasis on the appearance of things over truth. When she learns that Constance went flying, in public, with Harris, she uninvites her to Rachel’s wedding, explaining, “Our reputations could hardly withstand her presence after today. But if she stays hidden, it will take time for her identity to be confirmed, and we may hope Percival hears very little of it” (373). Lady Mercer doesn’t care what Constance or Rachel wants; she only wants Rachel’s intended spouse not to hear about Constance’s so-called “unfeminine” behavior before the wedding so that he doesn’t change his mind. Rachel, though pregnant, seems to understand the role that she is expected to play and doesn’t resist it. Constance, on the other hand, is more of a loose cannon; she cannot be relied upon to act as society would wish. Lady Mercer, on some level, understands this, and so she is harder on Constance than Rachel, despite the varying degrees of their unconventional behavior. She tells Constance to “think seriously about how [her] actions may ruin not only [her]self but the lives of innocent others. How unforgivable it would be if [her] outrageous behavior were to taint [her] cousin’s marriage” (373). Yet this marriage must take place only because her own daughter has transgressed social codes around female chastity. Similarly, Percival’s concern that Mrs. Fog might have been pregnant with Simon de Champney’s child when she married Mr. Fog is hypocritical, as Percival has impregnated Rachel before marriage. These patterns in the novel highlight double standards of race and gender. The novel also creates tension for characters who are aware of and challenge these double standards, like Constance, because they highlight The Arbitrary Nature of Gender Roles by which society expects her to abide.
Likewise, the doctor’s comments after Constance’s flight call attention to the arbitrary nature of gender roles. Here, the novel uses humor to lampoon the ridiculousness of these double standards. He chastises her, saying, “I don’t know why you young ladies risk your lives and your future as mothers insisting upon these strenuous male pursuits. If God had meant women to fly…” (370). He seems to stop speaking when he realizes that the rest of the sentence—“he would have given them wings”—is no truer of men than it is of women. The doctor’s comments emphasize how society determines certain activities to be “male pursuits” and others “female” based on completely capricious and subjective criteria.
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