“It’s not a drag, and Papa isn’t either,” Heloise shouted unexpectedly, as Miriam stared at her in surprise. She was normally so docile that Heloise even surprised herself with her own vehemence. “The hotel is beautiful, and it’s even prettier now, and Papa does a wonderful job,” she hotly defended it, and her father. He worked so hard to make everything perfect, and Heloise thought it was. It was her home, and she hated Miriam criticizing it to Greg, and even more so her father.
“I just didn’t like living there,” Miriam explained. “All those people around all the time, and your father was always too busy to spend time with me. Not like Greg,” she said.
Tears sprang to Heloise’s eyes. She hated hearing her father criticized and compared to Greg. It had been a hard week for her, feeling like a stranger in their house and lives, with two babies who had taken her place in her mother’s heart. Miriam made no secret of it, and it was obvious to everyone, including Heloise. The butler and nanny had talked about it quietly, that Heloise was always ignored or left out, but Greg and Miriam didn’t seem to know or care. The servants all felt sorry for the little girl, and they thought she was a genuinely nice kid. She told them all kinds of funny stories about her father’s hotel.
“I love living at the hotel,” Heloise said to her mother, in response to what she’d said to Greg. “Everyone is really nice to me, and all kinds of important people stay at the hotel. Like Eva Adams, and other movie stars and senators, and the president even stayed there once. And the president of France.” She wanted to impress them, but she knew she couldn’t. Nothing she or her father did mattered to them. They were only interested in each other, their babies and themselves.
She ran to her room in tears after that, and the nanny came to console her and brought her hot chocolate to make her feel better. Heloise told her about the English high tea they served at the hotel, and the nanny said it sounded wonderful to her, and that she was sure the hotel was beautiful. She felt sorry for the little girl.
Heloise had been there for ten days when Hugues called her again. Although he missed her fiercely, he had tried to refrain from calling so he didn’t interfere, but he hated the forlorn way that Heloise sounded when she came to the phone. He asked if she was having fun, and she burst into tears and said she wanted to come home. She was lonely in her mother’s house. He promised to work it out with her mother, and called Miriam that night. She said she thought it was a good idea for Heloise to leave too, she said she really didn’t have time to spend with her, since Greg was recording his new album and she wanted to be with him. Hugues said politely that he was sure that Heloise would understand, and she needed to get ready for school. She didn’t, and it was a weak excuse, but Miriam rapidly agreed and promised to put Heloise on a flight to New York the next day.
The visit had obviously been a bust, and Hugues was sad for his daughter and ached to hold her in his arms and give her a hug. She was so vastly loved and so essential in his life, and so superfluous and irrelevant in her mother’s, and Heloise was well aware of it. She wasn’t old enough to see it as a deficiency in Miriam and a fatal flaw in her character; she felt it only as a rejection, and all she wanted now was to go home. She didn’t belong here, and they had made that clear to her.
Miriam kissed her the next morning after breakfast and told her to have a safe trip back, then left for the studio in the Bentley with baby Joey in her arms. And Greg forgot to say goodbye to her when he left. The butler and nanny took Heloise to the airport, and both gave her warm hugs. The butler gave her a sweater with a British flag on it in colored rhinestones, in the right size, which she loved. And the nanny gave her a pink sweatshirt. They waved as she went through security, and she smiled back at them and then disappeared with someone from the airline escorting her to the plane.
Hugues had upgraded her to first class as a special treat. She watched two movies on the flight and slept for a while, and then they landed in New York, and she was escorted through customs and taken to her father, who was waiting anxiously for her. And before he could say a word, she threw herself into his arms and clung to him. There were tears in his eyes when he saw her, and she squealed with delight and hugged him till he nearly choked.
She said nothing about her mother on the drive back from the airport. She didn’t want to betray her or be disloyal to her. She knew it wouldn’t have been right. But the moment they reached the hotel, she flew through the doors and stood smiling broadly as she looked around. She looked up at her father as though she had returned from another planet, and she was so happy she couldn’t stop smiling as she saw the familiar faces in the world she knew and loved, and where everyone loved her. She was home.
Chapter 3
FOR THE NEXT four years Hugues continued to develop and improve the hotel, and to build on its success. It became everyone’s favorite venue for fashionable weddings, a favorite destination of knowledgeable jet-set travelers, politicians, and heads of state. The president of France was one of their more frequent guests, as well as the British prime minister, and the American vice president, and numerous senators and congressmen. Hugues’s staff handled the related security challenges flawlessly and made everything easy for the guests. Ten years after he bought the hotel, eight after he opened it, the Hotel Vendome was an undeniable success and favorite haunt of the elite from all over the world.
His personal life didn’t change during that time, despite several brief affairs he managed to squeeze in between hotel association meetings, negotiations with labor unions, and overseeing improvements made to the hotel. And Heloise remained the bright star of his world.
At twelve, Heloise was still the princess of the Hotel Vendome. She had started working for Jennifer in her father’s office, doing small tasks, and organizing things for her, and she still loved helping Jan the florist and looking things up at the concierge desk when they were swamped, like the addresses of restaurants and obscure stores the guests asked for. She enjoyed spending most of her spare time at the hotel. She was in that no-man’s-land between childhood and adolescence, when her interests were still focused at home and not yet fully directed at the outside world or consumed by boys. And in her case “home” was a very interesting place. She stood next to her father sometimes in the lobby when he greeted important guests, and when she met the president of France she was a hero at the Lycee Francais for several days.
Occasionally she invited girls from school to spend the night with her in the apartment upstairs, and her friends loved cruising the hotel and checking out the kitchens, visiting room service, getting their hair done when the hairdressers had free time, or stopping in at the spa, where they always got free samples of skin and hair products and now and then a five-minute massage. Spending a night at the Vendome with Heloise was an exciting gift for her friends, and once in a while her father sent them downtown shopping in the Rolls. Her friends all thought it was very glamorous. And sometimes they peeked in at weddings and big parties too.
Her braces had come off by then, and she was beautiful and growing tall. She still had a child’s body, had lost the curl in her long hair, and she looked like a young colt when she bounded down the halls. She was still close to Jennifer, her father’s assistant, as a kind of surrogate aunt and older friend and Heloise confided in her on important matters, which gave Hugues a source of additional information about what was going on in her life and head. He was relieved that she wasn’t interested in boys yet and still enjoyed childish pursuits, although her beautiful doll from Eva Adams had been gently placed on a shelf in her bedroom two years ago.
She hadn’t been to London to see her mother since the last, unsuccessful visit, but whenever Miriam came through New York for a day or two with Greg, she would invite Heloise to spend a night at their hotel with them. She had seen her mother three times in four years. She fantasized about what life would have been like with her, if her parents had stayed married. She couldn’t imagine it, although it would have been wonderful to have a mother. Miriam was completely absorbed into her rock star husband’s life and didn’t seem to care about Heloise or anything she did. Only Greg and their children mattered to her. Their two children were very cute, but whenever Heloise saw them, she thought they were wild and badly behaved. She said so to Jennifer but never to her father. She knew enough not to discuss Miriam with him. Even the mention of her name shot a look of pain into his eyes. And she knew he disapproved of her and was still hurt and angry. And Heloise had loyalties to them both, although more so to her father. Her mother became more of a stranger every year.
Heloise’s world consisted of her father, a hotel full of people who loved her, and a mother who seemed not to and made rare cameo appearances, like a shooting star in a summer sky. Heloise had more of a relationship with Ernesta the maid, Jan the florist, and Jennifer her father’s assistant who watched over her benevolently; they were all loving role models for her, better than her mother, Hugues knew. There had been a story in the tabloids about Miriam having a fling with a young cabana boy at a hotel in Mexico, and Greg had been arrested twice that year, once for possession of marijuana while on tour in the States and then for assault and battery when he got in a bar fight while severely inebriated. Videos of the fight and his subsequent arrest had appeared on YouTube, which Heloise admitted to Jennifer that she’d watched. She’d seen her mother in the crowd in the background at the bar, looking horrified when they dragged Greg out in handcuffs. Heloise had felt sorry for her mother, not for Greg. She told Jennifer he looked disgusting, and it seemed like he really hurt the man he hit with a vodka bottle. But apparently the man was his drummer, and the charges were dropped afterward. Hugues disliked the fact that Miriam lived in an unsavory world, but never commented on it to his daughter. He thought it would have been wrong to do so and never crossed that line with her. Jennifer was well aware of how much Miriam still upset him and what a terrible mother he thought she was, but she never mentioned it to Heloise either. She respected Hugues and Heloise too much to do so.
Hugues wanted his daughter to have good values and a wholesome, happy life. He was glad that she had no interest yet in boys, drugs, or alcohol. And although she lived in a fairly sophisticated setting at the hotel, he saw to it that she was well protected and only spent time with those he thought were good influences on her. He kept an eye on all she did, while appearing not to and seeming to be more casual and cool than he was. He was very Swiss about his child, with traditional and even conservative values and ideas for her, even if he was occasionally a little more playful himself, although always discreetly.
Heloise was completely unaware of any of the dalliances he had, and he kept it that way. He saw to it diligently that nothing of his personal life ever appeared on Page Six or anywhere else, no matter who he went out with. Jennifer teased him that he was the mystery man of the Vendome. And his discretion always gave Heloise the impression that she was the only woman in his life. Hugues preferred it that way, since none of the women was important to him and he always knew his brief affairs wouldn’t last. The only one who mattered to him was Heloise. And he thought she’d been through enough with her mother, without having to worry over the insignificant women he went out with too.
He had a penchant for women in their twenties and early thirties, always beautiful and somewhat striking, models, actresses, a few movie stars, an important heiress he met at the hotel. None of them would have been a good partner for the long haul, and he knew it, but they were fun for a night or two. And Heloise thought he hadn’t dated since her mother. It was a myth he was careful to preserve, although Jennifer warned him he might regret it one day if he met someone he cared about, and Heloise put up a strong resistance because she wasn’t used to him dating and thought she was the only woman in his life. Hugues didn’t agree with Jennifer’s motherly or sisterly advice and said that would never happen since he couldn’t even imagine being in a relationship again or falling in love.
“I’ll deal with it if it happens,” he said vaguely, “but don’t hold your breath.”
“I’m not,” Jennifer said with a rueful grin. She knew him well. He was carefully defended against any woman getting past his protective armor to his heart again.
Among other solid values Hugues tried to instill in his daughter was a sense of responsibility for her fellow man, despite their comfortable surroundings. He didn’t want her to think that life was only about luxury and people who lived well and were rich. And he pointed out that the wealthy had an obligation to help those less fortunate. The hotel had been donating a portion of its unused food to a local food bank since it opened. And Heloise was proud of her dad for that.
Hugues wanted her to realize how blessed she was and that there was more to life than just living in a fancy hotel. She lived in a rare and unusual world, but she had a social conscience as well. She volunteered in a soup kitchen through school, and collected toys for the fire department on her own at Christmas, asking hotel staff to donate old toys discarded by their children. She was acutely aware of how lucky she was and grateful to her father for the life they led. And she was generous with her allowance and collected money for UNICEF at school. World disasters, particularly those that affected children, went straight to her heart. More than anything, as difficult as it was in their surroundings and circumstances, Hugues wanted Heloise to have balance in her life and remain aware of those who needed help, and the suffering of mankind. She was a good girl, and more aware than many children her age.
She had been working in the florist shop all afternoon, helping Jan cut flowers and snapping thorns off stems, when she left finally and went upstairs to do her homework. She had a big assignment due at school. And there was a big wedding scheduled in the ballroom the next day that she wanted to attend. As usual, Heloise was planning to “drop in” and check it out. Her father assumed that she had been watching the room being set up when she came in late for dinner with him that night. Everyone was talking about the wedding, which was going to cost a million dollars between flowers, catering, decor, and the bride’s Chanel haute couture gown.