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.
Chapters 17-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism.
The navy plans to blow up the German U-boat today, and Lady Mercer reports that Rachel is on the way with her new fiancé, Percival Allerton, an American diplomat. She blames Constance for Mrs. Fog’s renewed friendship with the de Champneys and insists that there can be no whiff of “impropriety” until Rachel is “safely” married. Mrs. Fog reveals to Constance that the de Champneys’ parents were unmarried and that their mother was Black. This is why Mrs. Fog was forced to part from them in her youth and then again on the eve of her daughter’s wedding. Now, Mrs. Fog intends to marry Simon. Suddenly, a massive boom from the cannon shatters the window. Constance throws herself between it and the women, sustaining a small cut. Harris takes her to his mother’s suite, where he cleans and sews it up.
Chapter 18 Summary
The de Champneys arrive to visit Mrs. Fog and meet Lady Mercer, and Mathilde identifies their “mixed blood” as the cause of Lady Mercer’s concern. She is worried about how this relationship might impact Rachel’s upcoming marriage. Suddenly, Rachel arrives, and the de Champneys leave quietly, insisting that Constance go to Rachel. Percival sees them, however, and asks the undermanager about them, suggesting that the hotel is not “respectable” while the de Champneys are there. Constance immediately recognizes his racism and self-importance, but Rachel declares that they intend to marry in two weeks by special license. Lady Mercer says that she’ll have to speak to her husband, but Percival tactlessly insists that he requires no dowry and orders champagne.
Chapter 19 Summary
Mrs. Fog insists that Lady Mercer and Rachel go to Mrs. Wirrall’s ball with her. Mrs. Wirrall says that the cannonball failed to make more than a dent in the German U-boat. Now, the Victory Committee has plans to include it in an upcoming celebration. Mrs. Wirrall also learned that the hotel bookkeeper is leaving the country, and she has convinced the manager to interview Constance. She goes to his office, and after a brief test of her abilities, he offers her a trial period of employment. Constance asks for time to consider it and realizes that the seaside setting could only provide her with temporary relief from society’s inflexible ideas about men and women, class, and race.
Outside, Constance runs into Klaus, who introduces her to Odile Wilson. Constance is ashamed by her surprise that he has friends and a life outside the hotel, and it occurs to her that she will become likewise invisible if she becomes a hotel employee. Lady Mercer does not want to write Constance a recommendation because she says that the employment scheme is “outlandish.” She claims that it is not respectable for a young lady to work at a hotel. When Lady Mercer meets Poppy, she is shocked by the young woman’s appearance and activities. Everyone agrees to Poppy’s idea that Constance work at Penneston for a while.
Chapter 20 Summary
Harris and Jock trust each other, so they can push one another. To improve Harris’s balance, Jock urges him to dance, and Poppy nominates Constance as his partner. They continue their dancing lessons for several days, and Constance feels happy. Iris returns, intending to make up with Poppy. She reports that she’s been offered a sponsorship by a local newspaper, but she must be ready to fly the Sopwith Camel in three days. She will be Harris’s first student.
Chapter 21 Summary
Harris and Jock are nervous about the plane’s first flight, and Harris worries that he won’t be strong enough to manage it. Once he takes off, however, happiness consumes him. He dives, realizing that he could end his life here and now, but he sweeps upward again, waving at his friends. A few days later, the press arrives to witness Iris’s first flight, but she tells Tilly that she is too scared. Constance suggests that they postpone, but Iris fears that she’ll lose her sponsorship. Constance volunteers to take her place, and they quickly dress her as Iris. Harris and Constance complete a successful flight, and Iris poses for pictures. Evangeline and Constance discuss Harris, and Constance describes the progress he’s made. When Evangeline learns that he can dance again, she appears to reconsider their relationship.
A man from the Labor Board arrives and explains that taxi services, motor repair, and flying are all professions covered by the new law that compels businesses to employ returning soldiers over women. They have received a complaint about Wirrall’s Conveyances, and the man recommends that Poppy hire men to replace the women. According to his paperwork, Poppy has a month or two to plan, but Tilly overhears the conversation and retreats, hurt.
Chapter 22 Summary
Constance is alone at a table on the Palm Terrace when Captain Pendra arrives. She invites him to sit with her, and he informs her that he will no longer be able to participate in the Peace Parade because the Indian delegation will not arrive on time. He was told that this is due to “shipping delays” and a sudden flu outbreak, but Mr. Basu pointed out that all other international groups have arrived safely. They suspect that the delegation has been excluded. She considers what other insults the Indian men face in England, and he explains that they are often denied access to anything that might embolden or strengthen their people. Captain Pendra also sympathizes with Constance, as a woman, seeing that women are treated as second-class citizens. Later, Rachel professes to like Captain Pendra, “even if he is Indian” (300), and Constance suggests that she, herself, considers him her equal. Rachel suggests that Constance’s “alarming ideas” make her unsuitable for work as a governess.
At the next tea dance, Harris and Constance remark on how the war seems not to have affected Rachel at all. He compliments Constance’s candor and flirts with her. Mrs. Wirrall appeases Lady Mercer so that Constance can return to Penneston for a few more days. When the women go to Jenny’s to get their dresses fitted for the upcoming ball, Constance sees that Rachel’s slim waist has thickened and realizes that Rachel is pregnant; this is why the wedding must take place so soon.
Chapter 23 Summary
Harris instructs Constance on the airplane controls. She will only have to perform a few required moves, and then he will assume control of the plane. Later that night, she puts the finishing touches on the bookkeeping in preparation for the Wirralls’ meeting with Llewellyn. Harris finds her and makes her hot chocolate. When they discuss the war, Harris begins to cry, and Constance kisses him. Harris kisses her back, but she pulls away. The next day, Mrs. Wirrall asks Constance to stay for the meeting. Llewellyn is impressed with her bookkeeping, but he points out that the busier Wirrall’s Conveyances gets, the less money it will make. Constance was so focused on getting everything in order that she didn’t analyze the results. They have not collected rent from Hazelbourne Aviation for use of the airfield and may need to change this.
Chapter 24 Summary
Harris goes to Hazelbourne Aviation to speak with Tom’s father. Harris hopes to discuss financial matters, and Tom asks to remain present for the conversation. Tom reminds Harris that, soon, Poppy’s business will be in violation of the War Practices Act, referring to the visitor from the Labor Board: Tom was obviously the person who complained. Tom proposes that he and Harris compete in a flying contest on Peace Day, and he wants to place a bet on the outcome. If Harris wins, Hazelbourne Aviation will hire Harris as a pilot and count the back rent they owe as his partner capital in the company; if Tom wins, the company will buy the land, with the barn and the Sopwith Camel. Harris agrees. Constance and Mrs. Fog help Rachel prepare for the wedding. Percival is irritated that Captain Pendra is to be included in the Peace Day celebration, convinced that he will foment revolution. Later, Constance finds Percival speaking with the undermanager, who passes him an envelope in exchange for a wad of bills.
Chapters 17-24 Analysis
The casual racism of early-20th-century Britian takes center stage in this section. Mathilde correctly identifies that Lady Mercer’s biggest objection to her and her brother is the “shame on [her] family” that Mrs. Fog would bring by marrying a man of “mixed blood” (241). Though Lady Mercer blushes at Mathilde’s plain speaking, she agrees that all the “advantage” of the relationship lies with the de Champneys, revealing both her racism and her hypocrisy in hiding from it. When Percival spots the pair leaving the Meredith, he suggests that the hotel is subject to “certain lax European ideas when it comes to who is allowed in good hotels” (245), implying that people of color should not be permitted in such establishments, as would have been the case in race-segregated America at the time. Percival’s specifically American approach to race is used here to exacerbate the general antagonism of his character. Reflecting the more nuanced but potentially hypocritical attitudes of the British in 1919, the undermanager defends the hotel’s respectability and promises to “make some inquiries” as to the de Champneys’ identity (245). He fails to defend the de Champneys’ right to be there and accepts Percival’s bribe; however, it is implied that he will not follow up on his promise.
The exclusion of the Indian delegation from the Peace Day festivities and the racist treatment of the Indian characters by many other characters explore the racial prejudice toward Indian people as Britain’s imperial control in India begins to wane. The novel shows that, despite India’s contribution of over 1 million troops to Britain’s war effort, Indian citizens, including veterans, are treated unequally. The motivation of the British authorities in suppressing the Indian delegation is to maintain power in the face of calls for independence: “Of course they are well behaved and do not agitate for home rule,” as Captain Pendra says (295). Percival’s prejudice against Captain Pendra and his countrymen confirms the validity of Captain Pendra’s beliefs. Percival says, “Give them guns today, or aeroplanes, and they will turn them against you tomorrow. Use them in the labor corps if you must, but if you ask me, training them as officers is just a recipe for revolution” (335). Although an American character, Percival is used to represent the conservative British view of Indian independence, imbued with self-interest and exploitation.
Various characters’ words and attitudes toward the Indian characters are both racist and hypocritical. For example, Rachel considers herself more “toleran[t]” than the overtly racist Percival, saying that she likes Captain Pendra “even if he is Indian” (300). Her words display her acceptance of racist attitudes, even as she seeks to present herself as tolerant, part of the novel’s ironic treatment of British hypocrisy. When she suggests that Constance would not make a suitable governess due to her “alarming ideas,” she shows that ideas of equality are not only radical but also not respectable. This again creates an intersection with the theme of Social Pressure for Female Respectability, in which women are coerced by society into maintaining an unfair status quo.
The female characters’ experiences continue to highlight social insistence on female respectability and the tension that this creates with a growing postwar awareness of The Arbitrary Nature of Gender Roles. Lady Mercer views Constance’s job offer at the Meredith—the very establishment that she chose for her mother’s convalescence—as “outlandish.” She declines to provide Constance with a recommendation, saying, “A woman lodging alone in a town so far from home, and in paid employment […] is scarcely respectable” (261). Even the manager of the hotel asks Constance, “Where will you live? […] It must be somewhere completely respectable” (256). To avoid reflecting poorly on the Mercers, Constance—who is not even a relative but only the daughter of a family friend—must maintain “respectability,” and Lady Mercer suggests that this is more likely if she is “installed [as a governess] in some nice family. Not a lodger in some boarding house” (262). She cites the “perils” that can damage a woman’s reputation, and the manager’s concerns about where Constance will live suggest that Lady Mercer’s concern is not unique. Ironically, this insistence on Constance’s “respectability” does not compel the hotelier to offer her a salary commensurate with this requirement, just as the pension received by war widows fails to adequate support their families. Again, the novel shows how society insists on female “respectability,” a condition that is difficult to maintain while working for pay, but does not provide the resources necessary for a woman to be “respectable” in the absence of financial support.
Further, the juxtaposition of women’s work during the war with the general attitudes about women’s employment in the postwar era demonstrates the arbitrary nature of gender roles. The traditional, and privileged, Lady Mercer claims that “no matter our debt of gratitude to women for stepping into the breach, there is relief in the country that we can all get back to having things done properly, by professionals” (241). Her words demonstrate her privilege as an upper-class user of services; she has not been obliged by necessity or duty to take employment during the war. As such, her view is at odds with the experiences of women like Constance. Constance has completed correspondence courses in bookkeeping, sharpened her skills enough to quickly pass the hotel manager’s test, and put the Mercers’ and Wirralls’ estates in order. Yet the manager says, “Yes, the war’s left us all a bit upside down […] Young ladies crowding out the young men, getting qualifications they won’t use as soon as they get married” (255). Women like Constance prove that they can do things as “properly” as male “professionals,” even earning appropriate qualifications and proving themselves capable time and again. People capitalized on women’s skills and aptitudes during the war, offering courses specifically designed to maximize them, and yet now women are told that marriage is their most appropriate ambition. They are expected to relinquish the sense of empowerment and financial independence that they secured and resign themselves to giving both up simply because they are women. Thus, to Constance—and many others—“World peace is all very well, but for the average person—let us say, the average woman—it would be nice to think there might be some enduring changes. Some additional respect, some freedom, some scope for a larger life” (316). The novels explores the real historical challenges of a generation of women who, having proven themselves equal to men in the world of work, were pressured to retreat into more traditional gender roles.
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