Hotel Vendome

Chapter 19

THE REHEARSAL DINNER went off without a hitch, and Natalie looked lovely. She wore a short ice-blue-satin strapless dress with the diamond earrings Hugues had given her as a wedding present, which looked spectacular with her ring, and her mother’s string of pearls.

Heloise found a simple black cocktail dress in her closet and was sorry now that she hadn’t gone shopping, but it was Natalie’s night anyway, not hers. And she liked Natalie’s brother and wife, who was hobbling around in a cast with her broken ankle, and she liked both their boys. The younger was seventeen and just finishing high school and going to Princeton in the fall, and the older, Brad, was at Columbia Law School, twenty-five years old, and a strikingly handsome young man. They were seated at separate tables so they didn’t get much opportunity to talk, but Heloise remembered that he was seated at her table the following day at the wedding, and he had looked somewhat intrigued by her.

Both Natalie’s brother and Hugues made speeches, and her sister-in-law read a clever poem she had written about the bride and groom that came to the conclusion that they were the perfect couple, and instead of hating it as Heloise would have before, knowing what she did about her now, and her lonely childhood, she was touched and thought the poem was sweet and funny. And it was obvious that Natalie enjoyed it. She was loving every minute of all the festivities around the wedding, and afterward she went upstairs to sleep in the separate room where her wedding gown was, because she didn’t want to see Hugues from the rehearsal dinner till the wedding. He kissed her outside the suite, and then went upstairs to his own apartment, and Heloise went with him.

“Nervous, Papa?” she asked him as they walked into the apartment together. Normally, she would have liked it, but for the first time, it felt strange not to have Natalie around, and she almost missed her, after their exchange that afternoon.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he admitted. “It’s a big step for anyone, even an old man like me.” He had never in a million years expected to marry again, and now he was.

“You’re not an old man, Papa.” He looked young and handsome to her.

“Will you be my best man tomorrow?” he asked her, and she nodded. He really wanted her to be, and he was grateful that she was warming up to Natalie at last.

“Of course.” She still hadn’t figured out what to wear, but she had remembered a dress that she had worn to a New Year’s Eve party three years before. It was short and kind of a pale dusty gold. It looked serious and dressy, wasn’t too low cut, and it had a short bolero jacket that she could wear during the ceremony, and the dress underneath was strapless, which would be sexier when the dancing got going. She was planning to pull it out later and try it on.

They chatted for a few more minutes, and then Hugues decided to go to bed, and Heloise wandered around the apartment. She didn’t feel as though she belonged here anymore, not because Natalie had displaced her but she seemed to have outgrown it. She was thinking about moving downstairs to her own place when they were on their honeymoon, and it would be nicer for them too. She didn’t need to prove her point or defend her turf anymore. She was beginning to think that there was room for all three of them in her world. Natalie hadn’t stolen anything from her, she had come to join them, and there was a place for her.

Heloise got up at six o’clock the next morning, just as she had in the past when there were important weddings scheduled at the hotel. She put on jeans, a T-shirt, and sandals and went downstairs to check on all the activity in the ballroom. The flowers were being set up, the tables, the stage, Sally’s two assistants were there, and Jan. Jennifer had come in to help them and check the seating. Bruce was in evidence. Heloise chatted with them for a few minutes and checked on all the details. Everything was going well. She left the ballroom at seven, checked with room service to see if Natalie had ordered breakfast, and they said she just had, so Heloise stopped in to see her on the way up. Natalie looked unbelievably nervous when she opened the door.

“Everything is fine,” Heloise reassured her. “I’ve just been to watch them set up. Everyone’s down there. It’s looking gorgeous.” Heloise sat down and chatted with her until her breakfast came, kept her company while she ate it, and then went back upstairs. Her father was still asleep, and there was nothing for her to do. She had promised to go back down in two hours to help Natalie get dressed, and the hairdresser was coming to do her hair. They had several new ones who were very good, and Xenia, who had done her braids as a little girl, had retired the year before.

Heloise got ready herself in that time and had decided the gold dress would be a good choice. It still fit her perfectly. She put on very little makeup, did her hair in a sleek simple bun, and wore high-heeled gold sandals to go with the dress. At ten-thirty she was back at Natalie’s door, and her sister-in-law, Jean, let her in.

“How’s the bride?” Heloise asked her conspiratorially. Suddenly she was fully part of the wedding that she had avoided assiduously for five months.

“Glued to the ceiling,” Jean confirmed as Heloise walked in. But she already looked beautiful as the hairdresser swept her long blond hair into an elegant French twist that made her look like a model or a movie star.

Natalie was almost too nervous to talk, but she listened while Jean and Heloise chatted, and Heloise got her a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit, as Natalie thanked her gratefully.

And at noon they were ready to get her into her dress. Both women put it carefully over her head and slid it down over her slim figure. It was high-necked, long-sleeved, floor-length ivory lace, with a little round lace cap to match, and a full veil, and there was a long lace train. The dress molded her figure, and she looked absolutely exquisite. Both women took a step back to look at her, and she took their breath away. She had wanted a real wedding gown, because this was her dream wedding, but it wasn’t too much or vulgar or overdone for the time of day. It was in perfect taste, and the orchids she was going to carry with it were perfect. She looked like a bride from another era, and just looking at her, both women felt a lump in their throats. She was what every bride should look like and few ever did. Heloise couldn’t even imagine what her father would say. Even he wasn’t prepared for something as spectacular as this.

“I’ve never seen a more beautiful bride in my whole life, and I’ve seen a lot of them,” Heloise said honestly, and Jean nodded. She was wearing a simple navy blue silk dress with a beaded jacket and navy satin heels. It was very proper and looked a little bit mother-of-the-bride, which had felt right to her.

And as soon as Natalie was dressed, Jennifer appeared to check on them and started crying as soon as she saw Natalie. She only stayed for a few minutes and then left for the ballroom to see Sally. This was a big day for them all.

Both women took her down in a back elevator, and Heloise had had them line it with sheets and hang muslin drapes. She didn’t want anything touching the dress and had thought of everything. They folded the train into the elevator, and Heloise had used her radio to check with Sally that they were ready for them. All the key players in the wedding were carrying two-way radios. Everything was being handled with the precision of a bank robbery or a war. It was the boss’s wedding, after all.

Sally told Heloise on the radio that her father was front and center, waiting for Natalie at the altar, and the minister was there. All the guests were seated. They were ready to rock and roll, Sally said with a chuckle. And the music started as soon as they got out of the elevator, smoothed out Natalie’s dress, straightened her train and veil, and waited in a back hall, and then Sally came to get them. She beamed when she saw the exquisite bride.

“Ready when you are, Mrs. Martin,” she said to Natalie as tears filled the bride’s eyes.

“Don’t you dare cry and screw up your makeup!” Heloise warned her. The makeup artist had come up with the hairdresser that morning and done a beautiful job with very light makeup. You could hardly tell she was wearing any at all, which was just the right look for her.

“I’m so excited and so scared!” Natalie said, torn between giggles and tears.

“You’re okay!” Heloise reassured her, and left her with Sally. In the ballroom Jean’s oldest son Brad escorted both Heloise and Jean down the aisle. Jean took her place next to her youngest boy, and Brad slipped in next to her. Their father had gone to find his sister and walk her down the aisle to give her away, and Heloise took her place beside her father at the altar. They were wearing matching sprigs of lily of the valley, and he looked nervous, kissed her, and squeezed his daughter’s hand. He looked as anxious as Natalie had, waiting in the hallway. The music was playing softly, and then suddenly, the orchestra began to play Debussy’s water music, and the vision that was Natalie appeared in the doorway on her brother’s arm and proceeded sedately down the aisle. She looked absolutely gorgeous and deceptively calm, and when Heloise turned to glance at her father, she saw that there were tears rolling down his cheeks as he looked at his bride.

The bride and groom both cried through the ceremony, and then finally the minister declared them man and wife and told Hugues he could kiss her. And as soon as he had, in a single swift gesture, he turned to kiss Heloise as well, and he had an arm around each of their waists. It was the most powerful message he could have given her that she would never be left out, and they were a threesome now. And then Natalie and Heloise kissed each other and both of them were crying, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

The music picked up as they formed a receiving line to greet two hundred and fourteen guests, and the wedding was under way. Sally came over to check with Heloise several times, but everything was going smoothly. There were no problems, everyone was having a good time, and the orchestra was very good.

Hugues and Natalie did the first dance, and then he danced with Heloise, and Natalie with her brother, and eventually people found their seats for the late lunch that Natalie and Sally had planned. And all the most important long-term staff members were there. Heloise was too excited to eat. When she finally sat down, she found herself sitting next to Brad, and they struck up a conversation about law school and the École Hôtelière in Lausanne. He seemed fascinated by what she did, but mostly he was entranced with her. He asked her to dance shortly after she had danced with her father. And they hardly left the floor all afternoon. Natalie noticed them with a smile, and said something to Hugues. He glanced over casually and observed his daughter deeply engrossed in conversation with the tall handsome young man who looked totally mesmerized by her.

And then finally the moment came to cut the cake. As promised, they cut it, and Natalie fed him a forkful of it discreetly, and the waiters took it away to serve it after that. It had been a painless procedure for Hugues, who was having a ball at his own wedding. He danced with his wife, kissed her every chance he got, and told everyone he had never seen such a beautiful woman in his life. He wanted to dance with Heloise again too, but every time he looked for her, she was on the dance floor with Brad, and he didn’t want to interrupt or cut in, so he danced with Natalie again.

And at last it was time for Natalie to toss the bouquet. A small staircase had been set up to make it easier for her to do it and a prettier shot for the photographers and video camera. She stood at the top of the short staircase covered in white satin and flowers, as all the single women gathered round, and just as she had so often wanted to as a little girl, and occasionally managed when no one was looking, Heloise stood in the middle of the crowd and waited for the bouquet to fly over her head. There were easily two dozen women standing there, watching Natalie in rapt anticipation, and she took careful aim. Her eyes met Heloise’s for a knowing moment, and almost in slow motion, she reached up and tossed in precisely the right direction, and the tossing bouquet landed squarely in her stepdaughter’s outstretched hand. Everyone in the room cheered, and Heloise held it aloft like a trophy and smiled widely at Natalie and mouthed “Thank you!” It made up for all the times she hadn’t been allowed to reach for it as a little girl, and Hugues’s smile, watching her, was just as wide. It was an additional gift for him. The two women he loved had made friends.

Brad came back to find her again just after she caught the bouquet, and the music was starting up. It was getting livelier and younger as the afternoon wore on. “If that’s an omen that you’re the next bride in the room, then you’re a dangerous woman to dance with,” he teased her. “But I’ll brave it anyway. Care to dance?” She set the prized bouquet down at her table and headed back to the dance floor with him. They were there for ages until Sally came to tell her that Natalie had gone upstairs to change. Her sister-in-law had gone with her, and Sally said Heloise could stay at the party, and she’d let her know when they were ready to leave. Her father had disappeared too. And they had already posed for photographs earlier in the day, right after the receiving line, in a small room adjacent to the ballroom.

The bridal couple were flying to Los Angeles that night, staying at the Bel Air, and then flying on to the Palmilla in Baja the next day. They had thought of spending their wedding night here at the hotel, but Hugues knew that if he did, he’d be called on for every crisis, and he wanted to leave town immediately after the wedding, which was why they had decided on a daytime ceremony and reception.

Heloise continued dancing with Brad until Sally came to get her, and then they both went outside with a crowd of people to watch them leave the hotel. Jennifer and Bruce were there with other wedding guests. The Rolls was waiting for them, and bellmen were handing out rose petals, and a few minutes later Hugues and Natalie appeared. He wore a beige linen suit with a white shirt and an immaculate yellow Hermès tie, and Natalie was wearing a white Chanel suit and her new diamond earrings. They looked like a magazine cover as Hugues pulled his daughter into his arms and hugged her tight.

“I love you,” he said, holding her for a minute, and then Natalie hugged her, everyone threw rose petals, and a moment later they got into the car, and they all waved as they drove away. Heloise stood watching them for a long minute, fighting back tears, and feeling unexpectedly abandoned as Brad touched her arm and was looking down at her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. They’ll be back in two weeks,” she reminded herself, and then went back to the party with him.

It had been hard watching her father leave, but Brad was a good distraction when they went back to the wedding, and she smiled when she saw Jennifer and Bruce dancing a fast dance together. They were pretty good. And Brad and Heloise got back on the dance floor too as the band played on.

They were among the last guests to leave, and it was the best party she had ever been to. And as the party ended, Heloise invited some of the young people, and both of Natalie’s nephews, to her new rooms. They ordered beer and hamburgers and pizza much later, and the room was full of laughing, and talking until after midnight, and Brad looked as though he hated to leave her. He said he was spending the next day with his parents before they went back to Philadelphia with his brother, but he asked if she’d like to have dinner with him sometime next week. And she smiled at him and nodded. She liked that idea very much, and it was interesting that he was at Columbia Law School and not somewhere far away. He promised to call her and set it up, and she stayed in her own apartment that night. It would have been too lonely upstairs without Natalie and her father. She had already decided to move her things down the next day.

And as she climbed into her new bed, thinking about everything that had happened that day, the ceremony, the dancing, all the people she had met, dancing with her father, catching the bouquet, and meeting Brad, she decided that it had been a very special day, and a turning point for her as well as them.

And on a plane headed for Los Angeles, the bride and groom toasted each other with champagne and kissed as they sailed through a star-filled sky and held hands. And the captain announced over the PA system that there were honeymooners on the plane. “Good luck to Hugh and Natalie,” he said, shortening Hugues’s name, and everyone on board cheered, as the newlyweds beamed.