Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

At the beginning of February, Heloise was still angry and upset, Natalie was a nervous wreck, and Hugues was getting a little tired of it all. Natalie kept offering to leave him, Heloise would have loved it if she did, and he wanted them both to calm down. He reported to Jennifer about it every morning, and she kept telling him to hang in and be patient. He said he was.

“Why don’t you just marry her then?” Jennifer said one morning. “You might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. If Heloise is this mad, she’ll just get mad all over again if the two of you ever get married. Why not get it over with all at once? And then Natalie can just move in.” He hadn’t shown Heloise her new apartment. He didn’t want to spoil it by doing it when she was so angry. He wanted her to enjoy it and was waiting for her to settle down, and she hadn’t yet. And it was beginning to look like she never would. But he liked Jennifer’s idea and thought about it for a few days. Maybe she had a point. Heloise was already mad and had been for nearly two months. What difference would it make? And he loved the idea of spending the rest of his life with Natalie. They had talked about it a few times, before the furor began when Heloise got home.

He didn’t say anything to anyone, and he bought Heloise a beautiful red Givenchy coat for Valentine’s Day and gave it to her at breakfast. He could tell that she was tempted to give it back to him, but instead she opened it with a surly expression that melted when she saw the coat.

“Papa, I love it!” she said, and looked like her old self for about five minutes. He hugged her, and she put it on, and then she went back to her bedroom and slammed the door again. At least it had been a break in the clouds, which gave him hope. Maybe one day the hurricane would pass. Her relentless fury was getting old.

And that night he took Natalie to dinner at La Grenouille, which was her favorite restaurant, and then they went back to her place to talk, relax, and eventually make love. It had been a stressful two months for both of them. They were both working hard, and Heloise was making life miserable for them. He loved getting away from the hotel now, whenever he could, to be with Natalie and enjoy their time together in peace.

They were lying in bed afterward at her apartment, talking about Heloise again, and Hugues changed the subject. He didn’t want Natalie to get upset again. It was all they talked about now, most of the time, while they tried to guess how long it would take Heloise to relent about them. Maybe never, at the rate she was going. It had been a very long two months.

He was trying to tease Natalie to distract her, and kissed her, and then he looked at her with a worried expression, as though he saw something he didn’t like. “What’s that in your ear?” he asked her, and she looked scared for a minute.

“In my ear? Is there something in my ear?” She brushed her hand past it as though it might be a bug of some kind.

“There’s something in your ear,” he insisted, still frowning. “Let me have a look.” He peered into it, and she giggled. He was tickling her.

“What are you doing?”

“I think it’s stuck. Maybe I should get a pair of pliers or something.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said as she turned around and kissed him, which distracted him for a minute. He wanted to make love to her again, but there was something else he wanted to do first.

“Do you have a pair of pliers?”

“No, I don’t. And you’re not going to put a pair of pliers in my ear!”

“Oh, here it is! I got it! I knew there was something in there!” He handed something to her, and she didn’t know what it was at first, and she looked at it and stared in disbelief. It was a beautiful diamond solitaire. He had followed Jennifer’s suggestion and gone to Cartier that day. It was much larger than any engagement ring Natalie had ever dreamed of, and she looked at Hugues in amazement.

“Are you serious?”

“That looks like a very serious ring to me,” he said, laughing. “It’s a good thing I got it out. We might have had to cut off your ear to get to it.” And then he grew serious too. “Will you marry me, Natalie?” He slipped the ring on her finger as he asked her and then kissed her.

“Yes, I will,” she said when they came up for air. “I would even without the ring. I never expected anything like that.” That made it even more fun for him. He loved spoiling her. And she had earned it. She had waited a long time for him to do the right thing. And now he was doing more.

“When shall we get married?” he asked her, looking happy and relaxed as he lay next to her, and she was flashing the handsome diamond on her finger and grinning from ear to ear.

“I don’t know. Is tomorrow too soon? What if you change your mind?”

“I won’t.” He got quiet again for a minute. “I have to go to Heloise’s graduation in Lausanne in June, and by then I hope you’ll come with us. I’d like to give her a party when we get back and combine it with her twenty-first birthday. I don’t want to steal her thunder. What about July? How does that sound to you?”

“Perfect,” she said, as she turned and kissed him. The whole evening had been perfect. Their lovemaking, the proposal, the gorgeous ring. And a life with him forever. And then she looked worried again. “What are we going to tell Heloise?”

“That we’re getting married,” he said simply. “She hates me right now anyway. How much madder can she get?”

“Maybe a lot,” Natalie said, looking nervous.

“She’ll get over it.” He still believed that. And he had told Natalie when she came back to him that it was for good. And he was true to his word. “When she calms down, I’m going to ask her to be my witness.”

“I’ll ask my brother to give me away,” Natalie said happily. “Actually Heloise might like my nephew. He’s awfully cute. We can introduce them at the wedding.” She loved the sound of it as the words rolled off her tongue… ‘“at the wedding”… It was sheer bliss.

“That might help,” Hugues said, looking equally happy. “I assume we’ll have the reception in the ballroom?” he asked her.

“Of course. We could have a minister do it there.” She wasn’t particularly religious, and he was divorced, so it sounded right to both of them. It all did. The wedding. And the life that would come afterward. He had a life again. And he was going to have a wife who loved him. And one of these days, he might even have a daughter again too.

HUGUES DECIDED TO speak to Heloise the next morning. After leaving Natalie at her apartment, he walked back to the hotel, saw Heloise at the front desk, and asked her to come into his office. He looked very official as he said it. She was standing at the desk in the navy suit that was the uniform for female desk clerks, and she came in to see him a few minutes later.

“Am I in trouble?” she asked, looking nervous, forgetting for a moment that she was angry at him. She wondered if she had done something wrong while working at the desk, or a guest had complained about her, but he shook his head and asked her to sit down.

“No, I probably am. But you’re already angry at me. I want to make it clear to you again that I love you, that no one ever could or will take your place. You’re my daughter. And there’s room for you and Natalie in my life. Those are two very different roles. We had a crazy life for a long time, and we both loved it, with only the two of us. But you’re not going to stay alone forever, and I shouldn’t have to either. That’s not fair.” She was squirming in her seat as he said it. He looked at her quietly then and went on. “But since you’re so mad at me anyway, I figure I don’t have much to lose. I want you to be the first to know that I asked Natalie to marry me last night, and she accepted. I’d like you to be part of it. I want you to be my witness, instead of a best man. And no matter how mad at me you are, I love you. And I hope you give Natalie a chance and get to know her one day. We’re going to do it in July, after your graduation, which is a very big deal to me too.”

Heloise stared at him then, with a look of silent pain as tears rolled down her cheeks. “How can you do something like that? You always said you’d never get married again.” She couldn’t believe what he had just said and what he was planning to do. It was the worst news she’d ever had. And then she wanted to hurt him too.

“She’ll probably just walk out on you like Mom did,” she said with an angry look. Hugues made an effort not to react to what she said. He spoke to her quietly from across his desk.

“She’s a very different woman than your mother. I hope our marriage works, but if it doesn’t, it’ll probably be because I screw it up, not because she runs off with a rock star or anyone else. She’s a serious woman. Give her a chance. You might even get to like her too.”

Listening to him, Heloise looked sad. She was losing her father to a woman she hardly knew. She was sorry now that she had gone away to school. She was sure that if she had stayed it never would have happened. She looked heartbroken at his exciting news.

He stood up and came around the desk then, with a loving look at her. He could see how upset she was and spoke to her in a quiet tone. He had just had an idea and hoped the timing was right and that it might help. “Please go to the front desk and get the key to five-oh-two.” They walked out of his office together, and he waited for her at the elevator while she got the key from the front desk. She hadn’t asked him why. She was too upset. The assistant manager smiled when she took it. He had been wondering when her father was going to give it to her. It had been sitting empty for two months.

They rode up in the elevator together in silence and got out on five, and he took the key from her as they walked down the hall. She had no idea why he wanted her there. He unlocked it, pushed open the door, switched on a light, and waved her inside. She walked in and glanced around the room. She could tell that it had been recently decorated. The living room was all done in oatmeal and sand colors. And the bedroom was a delicate shade of pale pink. The fabrics were beautiful. She liked the paintings, and the rooms still smelled of paint. It had an open airy feel to it, and the sun was streaming through the windows.

“It’s very nice,” she said in a flat tone, “and I like the paintings. Am I supposed to be admiring Natalie’s decorating, or is there something you want me to do?” As she asked him, he handed her the key.

“I’ve been waiting to show this to you for two months.”

“Why?”

“Because I had it done for you. It’s yours, whenever you want it. You can stay upstairs in the apartment if you like, but I thought you might like some privacy too. You led a pretty independent life in Paris, and if you want to do the same here, I thought you might like your own place. I’m not pushing you out of the apartment, but whenever you want this, it’s yours. Keep the key.” He could see her face slowly come to life and the excitement in her eyes when he said it, and she didn’t know what to say, and then a worried look crossed her eyes.

“Is this a bribe because you’re getting married?”

“No, Natalie started working on this for you in October. I only decided to marry her two weeks ago.”

“I wish you hadn’t,” she said sadly, and he pulled her into his arms and gave her a hug.

“I promise you, it will be all right. And you’re never going to lose me, no matter what.” He stood there holding her, as tears slid down her cheeks. He hated causing her pain, but he knew that marrying Natalie was right. “You can move into this apartment whenever you want. Or if you prefer, you can stay upstairs with us. And maybe you just want to entertain your friends here. But if you stay upstairs, I expect you to be polite to Natalie.” He was making it very clear to her. She didn’t say a word for a long moment and then she stopped crying and smiled at him. She was touched by what he’d done for her.

“Thank you, Papa. It’s a beautiful apartment, and I love it.” She gave him a hug then and a kiss on the cheek. She was obviously torn between being devastated and being excited about her new apartment. Her emotions had been on a roller coaster since she got home. She couldn’t wait to invite her friends over to see her new rooms, and she hated to leave now and go back to work. She walked around again and loved everything she saw. She was trying to forget that he was going to marry Natalie and to enjoy the gift. “I really like the paintings,” she said finally. They were great: contemporary, bright, and young.

“I picked them all for you,” he said gently. “I’m glad you like it. I would have been really disappointed if you didn’t,” he told her honestly.