Hotel Vendome Read online

  Eva Adams laughed. “Like Eloise at the Plaza?”

  “No.” He returned the smile. She seemed very human and very kind, and all of the employees who had dealt with her had said as much to him. She was a very nice woman and had caused no problem at the hotel. “Heloise with an H. She’s named for my great-grandmother, and she was born before I bought the hotel. But now she is Heloise at the Vendôme.”

  “How sweet. I’d like to meet her before I leave so I can thank her myself.”

  “She’d like that very much, and she’s going to be very happy you got your bracelet back. She was concerned about it. We all were. It’s beautiful and obviously a very special piece.”

  “It’s Van Cleef, and I was very upset when I thought I’d lost it. Heloise is pretty terrific to have found it. I’d like to see her before we go back to L.A. tomorrow, if you don’t mind.”

  “I’ll be happy to arrange it,” he said discreetly, and left the room a few minutes later. He told Heloise about it that afternoon, and that Miss Adams wanted to see her the next day. Heloise was thrilled to hear it, and ran to find Ernesta to tell her the news that the bracelet had been claimed. The maid already had the check by then and was delighted with the reward.

  “I should give it to you,” Ernesta said fairly, but Heloise smiled and shook her head.

  “Papa wouldn’t let me have it. I’m not allowed to take money from the guests, except from Mrs. Van Damme for walking Julius. He made an exception for that. So you get to keep the reward.”

  Ernesta had a thousand uses for it and was smiling broadly as she went back to work turning down the rooms. Miss Adams and her entourage were out, or she would have thanked her herself. Instead she left a note on her pillow with an extra box of chocolates.

  And the next morning Hugues reminded Heloise that she had to put on a nice dress and her party shoes because Miss Adams wanted to meet her to thank her before she checked out. And checkout was at one P.M.

  Eva Adams called Hugues in his office at noon and asked him if he would bring Heloise to her suite. He called Heloise in their apartment and told her to get ready, and she was when he got there. She was wearing a pale blue smocked dress that she had worn several times to weddings and her Mary Janes with short white socks. She looked very pretty, and she had put a ribbon in her hair, and was excited to meet the movie star again.

  Eva Adams opened the door to them herself and greeted Heloise with a broad smile and bent down to kiss her, with a quick glance at her father over her head. Heloise blushed nearly the color of her hair and looked at her in open adoration.

  “You are one terrific kid, do you know that? You found my bracelet, Heloise. I thought it was gone forever.” As she smiled at her, she handed her a very large box and a small one, and Heloise stood staring at her in amazement.

  “Thank you,” she said without opening either of them. All the people in Miss Adams’s suite were rushing around getting ready to leave, the dogs were barking, and one of the children was crying. It didn’t seem like the right time and place to open the gifts, and she didn’t seem to expect it, so Heloise thanked her and kissed her on the cheek, and she and her father left and went back to their apartment, so she could open the gifts that Eva Adams had given her. She was a little overwhelmed by the experience of meeting her and being thanked so profusely. And she opened the big package first, while her father watched her. He was relieved that the bracelet had been found. They didn’t need a scandal at the hotel, that a major piece of jewelry had disappeared at the Vendôme. Heloise had done not only Eva Adams a good turn but her father as well, and Ernesta with the reward.

  Heloise tore off the paper and pulled open the box. There was tissue paper inside, and when she removed it, she saw the most beautiful doll she had ever seen. She had a delicate face and looked a little bit like Heloise. Miss Adams had inquired at the desk and been told that Heloise had red hair, and so did the doll. She was beautifully dressed and had several changes of clothes, and long silky real hair that Heloise could comb. She took the doll out of the box and stared at it in awe, and then she clutched it to her and looked at her father, and he smiled as he watched.

  “She’s very pretty. What are you going to call her?”

  “Eva. I’m going to take her with me when I visit Mommy.” It was the prettiest doll she’d ever had. She couldn’t wait to show all her friends in the hotel. It was a suitable reward for an eight-year-old girl. And then she remembered the much smaller box. It was a small velvet box, and she opened it and saw a small diamond heart on a chain inside it, and inside the heart was the letter H, for her name. She was even more stunned than by the doll, and her father put it around her neck. It was small enough not to be shocking on a child her age, but it was a beautiful and obviously expensive gift.

  “Wow, Papa!” she said, bereft of words, as she looked at herself in the mirror, still holding the doll close to her.

  “Why don’t we go down to the lobby and say goodbye to Miss Adams when she leaves? You can thank her then for the gifts, and write her a thank-you letter for when she gets home.” Heloise nodded and followed him out of the apartment, holding the doll and wearing the necklace, and only minutes after they reached the lobby, Eva Adams and her entourage appeared, and Heloise stepped forward shyly to thank her, and Eva bent and kissed her again. She was wearing the bracelet, and had on an enormous sable coat and hat and diamond earrings on her ears. And she looked every bit the movie star as she swept through the door to the street. The paparazzi who’d been there all week went crazy outside, and hotel security helped Eva and her party into two limousines as rapidly as they could. Heloise and her father stood on the sidewalk and waved as they drove away, and he put an arm around his daughter as they walked back into the hotel. Heloise was beaming and knew she’d never forget her as she wandered into her father’s office. Jennifer smiled at her.

  “That was pretty exciting. What are you going to do for the rest of the day?” Jennifer said warmly after admiring Heloise’s new necklace.

  “Eva and I are going to a wedding in the ballroom at three.”

  Her father looked up at her from his desk with a serious expression. “I don’t want either of you asking for cake or catching the bouquet. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Papa.” Heloise smiled broadly at him. “We’ll be good, I promise.” And with that she left his office, carrying the doll, to cruise the hotel and show her two rewards from Eva Adams to all her friends.

  “That was sweet of her,” Hugues commented to Jennifer after his daughter left, thinking of how beautiful the actress was and how kind to his daughter.

  “It was only fair,” Jennifer said. “That was quite a piece of jewelry she almost lost, even if it was insured.” And she was happy too that Heloise had gotten such pretty gifts.

  “I have to do something about her going to all the weddings,” Hugues commented with a worried look. “One of these days someone will complain.”

  “I think she’s fine,” his assistant reassured him. “She’s very well behaved. She always dresses appropriately. And she’s awfully cute.” He didn’t disagree.

  Miriam finally contacted Hugues at the last minute to set up Heloise’s trip to London for Christmas. Heloise had been worried that her mother wouldn’t call, but at last she did. She took the doll with her when Hugues put her on a plane to London the day before Christmas Eve. It was the first time she would be spending Christmas with her mother since she left four years before.

  Hugues was nervous about her going, but he thought he should at least try to keep her mother in her life. She only had one mother, even if Miriam wasn’t attentive to her. He hated it when Miriam upset or disappointed their daughter. She was thoughtless and selfish more than she was intentionally cruel. Heloise was going to be there for two weeks if all went well, and he hoped it would.

  He hadn’t laid eyes on his ex-wife since the divorce and didn’t want to. In all fairness, she had demanded no money from him since she was still making a lot of mon
ey from modeling then, and she had married Greg almost immediately after the divorce. And she hadn’t wanted custody of Heloise even then. All she wanted was Greg. She had been obsessed with him, and from what Hugues saw in the press, if it could be relied on, she still was. And now she had two children with him.

  Poor Heloise had been abandoned by her mother and left out. And no matter what Hugues did or said to put a balm on it, inevitably it was still a wound for the child. But selfishly, in some ways, he knew it was easier for him to have Heloise to himself. Legally he had sole custody, and in reality it was as though she had no mother at all, except for the pain in Heloise’s eyes when she talked about her, which cut through her father’s heart like a knife every time he saw it.

  When the plane landed in London, their driver was waiting for Heloise with a Bentley. He took charge of Heloise’s luggage and chatted with her on the way to their house in Holland Park. Heloise had slept on the plane, and she was holding her doll on the ride to the house. It gave her comfort and made her feel less scared.

  The driver walked her up the front steps, and a butler let them in, and he smiled as soon as he saw her and walked her upstairs to a sunny sitting room where Miriam was nursing her infant son. Her eighteen-month-old daughter was careening wildly through a sea of toys.

  Heloise hadn’t seen her mother in a year but was used to her new look from pictures in magazines. Miriam was in People magazine all the time, and Heloise kept them all. Since leaving Hugues, she had dyed her hair white blond and cut it short. She had a row of diamonds in pierces up her ears, and she had tattoos on both arms. She was wearing a T-shirt and tight black leather jeans. She held an arm out to Heloise as she nursed the baby, whom Heloise had not seen before. She had met her half-sister Arielle the year before, and she squealed with delight when she saw Heloise’s doll.

  “What a pretty doll.” Miriam smiled at her as though she were someone else’s child.

  “Eva Adams gave her to me. I found her diamond bracelet that she’d lost in some towels,” Heloise explained almost shyly. Her mother became more of a stranger to her every time they met. Miriam had replaced her with two babies by a man she loved. Heloise was the reminder of a life and man she wanted to forget. And Heloise had no mother figure to replace her with, except the people who worked at the hotel. The only real parent she had now was her father. And she missed having a mom to cuddle up with, even though she loved her father.

  Miriam leaned over and kissed her then, over the baby’s head. He looked up at Heloise with interest, and then went back to nursing. He was a chubby, happy-looking baby. His older sister Arielle climbed into her mother’s lap then, cuddling her mother and brother. There was no room for Heloise in her mother’s arms, or her life. And a few minutes later Greg walked in and looked surprised to see Heloise as he glanced at his wife.

  “I forgot you were coming,” he said to Heloise in a heavy cockney accent. He had far more tattoos than Miriam and “sleeves” of them on both arms, and he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and black cow-boy boots. They were completely different from anyone in Heloise’s world, certainly her father, although she occasionally saw rock stars at the hotel. But she couldn’t even imagine her mother with her father now. She had no memory of the time when they’d been married, and they were totally different from each other. Miriam looked almost identical to Greg and in total harmony with him.

  Greg was pleasant to Heloise, although she never felt totally at ease with him. He smoked heavily, used bad language, and had a drink in his hand most of the time. Hugues had warned Miriam that he didn’t want any drugs around Heloise while she was with them, and she promised that there wouldn’t be, although Greg usually smoked dope openly at home. She asked him not to during Heloise’s visit, and he said he’d try to remember, although he had a joint in his hand most of the time.

  They celebrated Christmas Eve together the next night, and her mother gave her a black leather jacket that was too big and a black Chanel watch with diamonds on the face that was unsuitable for a child her age and showed how little she knew her. Even a stranger like Eva Adams had chosen better gifts for her. Greg gave her a small guitar that she didn’t know how to play, and they went to visit his parents in Wimbledon on Christmas Day.

  And after that Heloise hardly saw them. Greg was recording, and Miriam sat in on the sessions with him and took the baby with her so she could nurse him, and they left Heloise at home with the nanny and Arielle. And after recording Greg and Miriam went out with his band almost every night. She made no effort to take Heloise anywhere, and when Hugues called to see how she was, Heloise said politely that she was having a nice time. She didn’t know what else to say and didn’t want to be disloyal to the mother she hardly ever saw and was afraid to lose entirely.

  So she spent most of her time playing with Arielle, and with baby Joey when he was home. And the nanny was pleasant to her. She took Heloise to Harrods to shop for some clothes, and to Hyde Park, and to the stables of Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard.

  Heloise spent most of the week at the house, wishing she were home. She felt out of place and as though she were a guest and not part of the family. They made no effort to make her feel included, and sometimes they forgot that she was there, until the nanny reminded them. And on New Year’s Day Heloise got in an argument with her mother, who was telling Greg how much she had hated living at the hotel, and what a bore it was, and even more so during the endless two years before that when Hugues had been renovating it, and what a drag it was, and so was Hugues.

  “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 to
o, 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.