Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

“I slept in the first aid station till midnight. And then I slept behind the ballroom curtains till six. He’s a good person, Papa. He didn’t hurt the room. I cleaned everything up myself.” Listening to her, Bruce Johnson was trying not to smile. She looked so earnest and so serious. He was well aware that she had taken a terrible risk, but at least she hadn’t gotten hurt. He was sure the Secret Service wouldn’t be comforted to know there were homeless people being sneaked in and sleeping in the rooms.

“I’m not going to let you have friends here anymore if you lie to me and do things like that,” her father said sternly.

“You always say that we have an obligation to poor people, and to remember that everyone isn’t as lucky as we are. He might have died on the streets last night, Papa.” She wasn’t apologizing for what she had done, and she was thrilled that it had gone off without a hitch. And if she was punished for it now, it was well worth it and she didn’t care.

“We can fulfill our responsibilities in other ways,” her father said sternly. “We give to the food bank. I don’t want you ever doing that again. He could have been dangerous and hurt you or one of the guests or someone who works here.”

“He wouldn’t do that. I know him,” she said softly. And as proof, everything had gone fine.

“You don’t know that. He could be mentally deranged.” Hugues was trying not to shout at her, out of fear over what could have happened to her. She could have been dead in the room and no one would have known.

“Papa, letting him spend the night here may have changed his life or given him hope. He got to live like a human being for one whole night. That’s not a lot to ask.”

“It’s too dangerous,” her father insisted. “I forbid you to ever do that again. And I want you to stay in the apartment and think about it today. You can go now,” he said solemnly as she left the room, and the two men looked at each other and shook their heads in amazement.

“You’ve got a little Mother Teresa on your hands. You’d better keep an eye on her,” his head of security warned him.

“I had no idea she’d ever do something like that. I wonder if she’s done it before,” Hugues said, looking stunned.

“I doubt that. We’d have seen her on the screens. But she pulled it off pretty well last night. At least he got a good night’s sleep and two good meals. Maybe she’s right and it will change his life,” Bruce said quietly, touched by what she had done.

“Don’t you start,” Hugues warned him. “I am not turning this hotel into a homeless shelter.” He had an idea then and wanted to talk to Heloise about it later, but not just yet.

Bruce took the tape out of the machine. “She’s quite a gal, our little princess. And I think she’s going to keep you busy for the next few years.” Hugues nodded and sat quietly in his office afterward, thinking about what his daughter had done and how brave and compassionate she had been, and then he went to see her upstairs. She was lying on the bed in her room with her iPod in her ears, and she sat up when he walked in.

“I’m sorry, Papa,” she said quietly.

“I just want to tell you something,” he said with tears in his eyes. “It was crazy and dangerous and wrong in many ways, but I want you to know that I love you and admire you for what you did. I’m very proud of you, and you were very brave. But I still want you to promise that you won’t do it again. I just want you to know that I respect you for it too. I wouldn’t have had the courage to do what you did.”

“Thank you, Papa,” she said, beaming at him, and threw her arms around his neck. “I love you so much.”

He nodded, choking back his emotions, which were overwhelming him. “I love you too,” he whispered as he held her, and tears slid down his cheeks. And most of all, he was grateful that she hadn’t gotten hurt. And then he turned to her with a slow smile.

“I have a job for you,” he said with a serious expression. “I want you to work with the kitchen people who organize our food bank donations. I want you to learn everything about it, and when you’re a little older, I’ll put you in charge of that project. So that’s your assignment from me.” She beamed at her father and hugged him again. And he had another idea too. “And if you want to do more hands-on work, you can volunteer at a family shelter. But no more bringing them home to the hotel!”

“I promise, Papa,” she said solemnly. Bruce had come upstairs and given her a lecture too.

Hugues realized that she had a need to do some real philanthropy, and he was willing to help her do it. He was still stunned by what she had done and the sheer innocence and goodness of it. She was quite a girl! And he was a very proud father.

WORD OF HELOISE’S escapade with Billy the homeless man had been whispered among the employees. No one discussed it with her openly. She started working on their food bank donations in the kitchen, and within a few weeks everyone knew about Billy, and thought it had been a brave and crazy thing to do. And she was tireless in her work on the food bank project, even carrying crates of food herself to the truck that picked them up. And her father found her a job at a family shelter downtown twice a week.

She had looked for Billy again when she walked Julius, but he had moved on and disappeared. She hoped he had gotten into a shelter by then. And she was still glad she had brought him into the hotel for a night. She wondered if she’d see him at the soup kitchen where she worked sometime, and hoped she would.

Two weeks later, with four February weddings scheduled, Sally Biend, the catering manager, fell off a ladder in the ballroom and broke her leg. She had been taking a closer look at the chandelier to see if it needed to be cleaned before the wedding the following week. Everyone was enormously relieved that it was only her leg.

Heloise visited her in the hospital. She was one of Heloise’s favorite people and always let her sneak into the weddings. Her assistant was out on maternity leave, and they had to call an agency to find someone to take her place immediately. None of the candidates they sent over looked right for the Vendôme, until the final one, who came in looking like an angel, with excellent references from a hotel in Boston. She was a godsend. They hired her on a temporary basis for three months, until Sally could come back, hopefully in time for June, because they had so many weddings booked.

Hilary Cartwright had been catering manager at several hotels even before the one in Boston and seemed to know her stuff. And she looked more like a model than their usual hotel employees, with straight blond hair, long legs, and enormous blue eyes. And her references were excellent. She was attractive, well spoken, interviewed very well, and she said she was fully capable of handling the weddings they had on their books. She even mentioned to the head of human resources that she hoped to get a permanent job out of it in the long run. They had no openings now, but competent people were hard to find.

Heloise got a look at her the day before the first wedding she’d be handling, and announced to the florist that she thought Hilary was very pretty. Jan made no comment whatsoever, which was unlike her. Heloise was watching her and was startled when Jan, who was usually mellow, turned around with a tense expression.

“Little Miss Innocent Angel Face is a raving bitch.”

Heloise had never heard her say anything like that. “She is?” Heloise looked stunned.

“She won’t let me set up till tomorrow. She sent everything back down here and locked the ballroom. She told me the arrangements look pathetic, and she intimated to your father that I’m overcharging, padding the bill, and possibly cheating him and the client, and she can get better flowers and a better deal from a friend. Your father called me about it,” Jan said with tears in her eyes. She had never had a single problem in her eight years at the Vendôme. Till now. Thanks to Hilary Cartwright. She started to cry then and blew her nose.

Heloise hugged her and tried to console her. “Papa is probably just in a bad mood. I saw him with a ton of bills on his desk. He’s always crabby when that happens.”

“No, he believed her,” Jan said, crying again, although she was one of the most respected florists in New York, and had won several awards for her work in the hotel.

Things got worse the next day. Hilary got in a full-scale battle with Jan before the wedding. She shouted at the waiters and had them reset the tables. She ran the ballroom with an iron fist. She got good results, but she had an aggressive confrontational style no one used at the Vendôme. Sally was always kind to everyone and got great work out of them. Hilary was hell on wheels and had people running and crying no matter how sweet she looked. Nothing she did or said was sweet.

But when Hugues came to check on things, she turned into a lamb and turned innocent eyes toward him, while the people she’d been brutalizing stood and stared at her in disbelief. Heloise couldn’t imagine it of her father, but he fell for it like a ton of bricks and melted in a puddle at her feet. Heloise had never seen anyone do that to him, and she was shocked. He looked bewitched when he left the room.

“Did you see that?” Heloise whispered to Jan. “He was completely gaga. He believes all that stuff she says to him.” Heloise was horrified.

“It’s going to be a long three months till Sally comes back,” Jan said sadly. Her boss seemed to be falling for the woman with the blond, blue-eyed looks of an angel and the behavior of a storm trooper.

Hilary turned her attention to Heloise then, after her father left the ballroom, and asked what she was doing there.

“Just visiting,” Heloise said politely. This was her fiefdom, not Hilary’s, and she wasn’t going to be chased off, no matter how tough she was.

“We don’t want uninvited guests at a wedding, do we?” she said pointedly to Heloise, who was wearing a new dress for the occasion. It was a dark green velvet skirt with a velvet top, with a white lace collar and shiny flat black pumps and white tights. She looked like an ad for what girls her age should look like, but Hilary clearly didn’t find it endearing. She told her to leave the ballroom before the wedding. Heloise flatly said she wouldn’t, and that she had attended all the weddings at the hotel since she was six. There was a long pause between the two, and Hilary nodded.

Hilary had decided not to tackle Heloise just yet. She let her stay on the fringes of the wedding and watched her like a hawk, waiting for her to do something wrong. When Heloise ordered a Coca-Cola from a passing waiter, Hilary canceled it immediately and reminded Heloise that she was not a guest. But this was Heloise’s world, not hers, and things were done differently here. The owner’s daughter could do no wrong; they had all watched her grow up. Hilary clearly didn’t find her charming, and her only interest was in Hugues.

“You don’t order drinks here,” she told Heloise firmly. “If you want to see the bride, that’s fine. But if you want to eat or drink, go upstairs to your own apartment. And don’t dance or talk to the guests.” Her tone was harsh and her blue eyes ice cold, as the other employees watched her.

“I always talk to the guests,” Heloise said firmly, without flinching. She was not going to be run off by a stranger. This was her home. “I represent my father here,” she said with a tone that was braver than she felt. Hilary was scary.

“And I’m responsible for this wedding. You’re not an invited guest, and I’m sure your father would agree.”

Heloise wasn’t sure he wouldn’t, so she didn’t press the point. But two waiters who had heard the exchange went out to the kitchen and told the head chef that there was trouble in River City, and the new catering manager wouldn’t let the boss’s daughter order a Coke.

“She won’t get far with that.” The cook laughed and rolled her eyes. They all agreed that Hilary wouldn’t last three months if she was mean to Heloise. Her father wouldn’t tolerate that.

The wedding went off perfectly. Heloise watched it for a long time and left before they cut the cake, which was unusual for her, but she felt unwelcome after what Hilary had said and could feel her eyes on her all the time. Heloise went upstairs and watched a movie, then came back downstairs after the wedding was over and walked into her father’s office to say hi. She almost fell over in astonishment when she saw Hilary sitting there with her angel face on, laughing as Hugues poured them each a glass of champagne. Cristal, their best.

“What’s she doing here?” Heloise blurted out as Hilary turned and gave her a victorious look.