Hotel Vendome

Chapter 2

HUGUES HAD STRUCTURED the hotel in the traditional way he had learned at the École Hôtelière and at all the important hotels where he had worked. And he made good use of his staff. He had a back office, which handled all the business aspects of running the hotel, reservations, sales, marketing, and accounting, all functions that were vital to the operation of the hotel. The human resources staff were part of the back office too, and they dealt not only with the employees but with the labor unions, which was crucial. A strike could cripple the hotel. Hugues had picked his staff with infinite care and knew full well how important they were. If reservations weren’t diligently handled with minute precision, and carefully kept track of, or if accounting was inaccurate, it could put them out of business. And he kept a careful eye on all the administrative aspects of the hotel. He had a profound respect for how important the back office was, despite the fact that their guests never saw any of those people, but the smooth running of the hotel depended on the competence of the administrative staff, and he had chosen them well.

The front desk and concierges worked hand in hand and were key faces that the hotel guests saw on a constant basis. Without a smoothly run reception desk, and supremely competent concierges, his guests would have swiftly shifted their allegiance to other better-run hotels. Among the many functions they performed, they had to meet the sometimes-exotic needs of their VIP and celebrity hotel guests. They were used to movie stars, who insisted on changing suites three and four times until they found the one that pleased them, had their assistants send long lists of special dietary needs in advance, and required everything from satin sheets to orthopedic mattresses, special items for their children, air filters, hypoallergenic pillows, and masseurs to be standing by day and night. The staff were used to unusual requests and took pride in adapting to their most demanding guests. They were also accustomed to some of the more unpleasant behaviors of their VIPs, who frequently accused the maids of stealing valuable items that they had misplaced or lost themselves. In the past three years, they had not had a single case of real theft by employees, had been able to calm hysterical guests who falsely accused staff, and had proved otherwise in each instance. The hotel staff had learned how to handle difficult guests and take accusations of that nature in stride. Hugues demanded criminal background checks and bonded all his employees to protect the hotel and the guests.

The housekeeping department was impeccably run by another graduate of the École Hôtelière, with a fleet of maids and valets, and a dry-cleaning operation and laundry in the basement. They were responsible for keeping the rooms and suites and hallways immaculate and their guests satisfied, again frequently with challenging demands. All of the personnel who had direct face-to-face contact with the guests had to be efficient and diplomatic, and the rooms had to pass housekeeping inspections that were conducted with military precision. Members of the housekeeping staff were let go if they did not meet the Vendôme’s stringent standards.

The department that provided uniformed services was equally closely supervised and included bellmen, doormen, elevator men, valet parkers, and chauffeurs when they needed them, which they did frequently, from a limousine service that they used for many of their guests. They were responsible for getting people in and out of the hotel quickly and efficiently, with the right luggage, keeping track of arriving packages, and getting them to where they wanted to go around the city, to airports, or out of town.

Food, beverages, and catering was one of their largest departments and was responsible not only for room service, and their now-famous restaurant frequented by people from all over the city, but they dealt with all catered events that were held at the hotel: weddings, private dinners and lunches, conferences, and meetings. Food and beverage handled it all, and thus far, extremely well.

The security division was somewhat behind the scenes, but it was another vital service that Hugues relied on heavily to keep personnel in line and guests safe. Jewel robberies had become a common occurrence in many first-rate hotels, and Hugues was extremely pleased that the hotel had experienced none so far. Their staff was extremely vigilant on all aspects of security.

They had a business center, with secretaries and IT personnel available at all times. The spa and health center was one of the best in the city. Engineering and maintenance kept the hotel in working order, whether it was a crisis like the burst pipe in the basement, or something as simple as a blocked toilet or a television that wasn’t working. All of it required the attention of engineers. And the other essential department was the staff that manned the telephones to keep communications in and out of and within the hotel working smoothly, taking messages properly, and handling all calls with speed, precision, and discretion.

In all, it was an enormous staff to make the hotel what it was, with Hugues overseeing everything himself. He was proud that he knew each of his employees by name, and his constant presence at the hotel kept everyone on their toes. Running the hotel was a tremendous job, and each piece of the machine, however seemingly unimportant, was actually a vital piece that allowed the hotel to function smoothly and well as a whole. And just as Hugues knew every one of his employees, so did Heloise as she roamed freely through the hotel.

The Hotel Vendôme was not only Hugues’s dream but his passion, and other than his daughter, it was his love. There was so much to do there that it was hard for him to focus on much else. In the absence of Miriam, once she left him, the hotel became his wife. He often said he was married to the hotel. He ate, slept, breathed, and loved everything about it. He couldn’t even imagine being married again now; he didn’t have time. And any woman he got involved with realized very quickly that she was only secondary in his life, if that. He had too much else on his plate-all of which related to the smooth running of his hotel and averting crises before they happened, or solving them quickly when they did-to have time for anything other than breakfast and dinner with Heloise and a few quick hugs in between. The rest of what he did all day required his full concentration and most of his time. Heloise got what was left.

When he arrived at dinner parties, he inevitably arrived late. When he went to the theater, the opera, or the ballet, when taking out a woman, his phone vibrated on his belt all night, and too often he had to leave halfway through the performance to deal with a security issue surrounding a head of state or the Secret Service. They had to clear the floors above and below the floor occupied by a head of state. It was a hugely complicated undertaking, and he needed to make sure that the other guests were not unduly inconvenienced while they were there. It left the passing women in Hugues’s life frustrated and annoyed that they could never spend an evening with him without interruptions. It was rare that he could enjoy a quiet evening with a friend, and more often than not, he didn’t even try. Women staying in the hotel frequently pursued him, once they realized that he was single and saw how handsome he was. But he was always candid with them right from the beginning that he was too busy at this point in his life to get seriously involved with anyone, and they were liable to be disappointed by the little time he had to share. It was also a clever way to mask how badly he had been hurt by the failure of his marriage, and by Miriam’s betrayal when she left with Greg. He had no desire to go through that again, although he enjoyed female companionship once he healed from Miriam, and frequently he couldn’t resist a pretty woman, but it never lasted long. There were too many other demands on his time, and Heloise fulfilled his emotional needs better than any romance. She wasn’t going to cheat on him and leave him, and she filled his heart in all the ways that mattered most to him.

“I can’t compete with your daughter and your hotel,” a famous film actress had complained after dating him for a few months whenever she was in New York. She had been crazy about Hugues and sent him expensive gifts, which he quietly sent back to her. He couldn’t be bought, and he knew that what he offered wasn’t a fair exchange. All he wanted was an occasional lighthearted evening here and there, and on rare occasions he would slip away for a weekend, but only if Heloise was staying at a friend’s. And he never involved her with the women he went out with. None of them was ever important enough for him to do so. And his affairs within the hotel had been discreet and rare. He had learned that lesson before his marriage, and he knew how disruptive it could be to get involved with someone he worked with. His early attempts in his youth had ended badly, and he almost always avoided them now, with very rare exceptions. He didn’t want to get tangled up in complicated situations.

All he really wanted was to be a good father and run a great hotel, and so far he was doing well at both. It left little or no time for an important woman in his life. He was essentially unavailable in all the ways most women wanted, and rather than disappoint them, he preferred to engage lightly and move on, or steer clear of them entirely if they were too demanding or intense.

More than one of the women he had had a brief romance with had tried to turn it into more, without success. All that did was make Hugues run faster in the opposite direction. And he remembered all too clearly how agonizing it had been for him when Miriam left. He never wanted to experience that kind of pain again. He didn’t consider himself relationship material, and said openly that he didn’t know if he would ever be again. To some women that only provided a greater challenge, and they eventually discovered that he meant what he said. He never lied to the women he went out with. He was extremely candid right from the beginning, whether they believed him or not. And as far as Heloise was concerned, she believed she was the only woman in his life, which suited her just fine.

By the time Heloise was eight years old, she was the queen bee and mascot of the Hotel Vendôme. Her interests and pursuits were becoming a little more grown up. And although she still loved Ernesta and helping her push the turn-down cart at night, she had developed a strong friendship with their florist, Jan Livermore, whose flowers for the hotel were spectacular and artistic on a grand scale. Her gigantic arrangement in the lobby caught everyone’s attention, and sometimes she let Heloise help her put it together. Heloise was spending more time with Jan now than with Mike the engineer, and becoming more of a young lady. And she loved watching Jan and her assistants do pieces for weddings, and bridal bouquets.

She had convinced Xenia the hairdresser to cut a few inches off her hair, and wore it in a long ponytail now instead of braids. Her new teeth had come in, and she was wearing braces, which only made her look more impish than ever when she smiled. She visited Mrs. Van Damme and Julius her Pekingese often, and loved walking him, for which the dowager paid her a dollar.

Heloise hung out with the phone operators, and still enjoyed pushing the trolley for the maids and checking out the new lotions and creams and shampoos. Her father’s new assistant, Jennifer, pointed out to him discreetly that Heloise seemed to be craving female companionship, since she frequently sought out all the female employees and befriended them. He was aware of it too and felt badly about her mother’s absence from her life. Miriam was always promising to send for her and never did. She had just had another baby with Greg Bones, this time a boy, and she was leaving Heloise more and more out of her life and rarely called. Heloise never complained about it, but he knew she was hurt. When her mother forgot her eighth birthday, she had looked crestfallen all day, and it made Hugues’s heart ache just looking at her. He tried to be both mother and father to her, but it was hard to compensate for the failures of her mother.

Heloise’s favorite pastime on the weekends that her father worked was slipping quietly into wedding receptions in the hotel’s ballroom and mingling with the guests. She loved looking at the brides and watching them cut the cake. Hugues had caught her eye once as he walked past the ballroom himself and saw Heloise lined up with the single women to catch the bouquet. He had rapidly signaled to her and beckoned her out of the room.

“What are you doing in there?” he scolded her. “You’re not a guest!” She looked highly insulted when he said it.

“They were very nice to me. They let me have a piece of cake.” She had put on her best party dress, with a pale blue satin sash, and her shiny black patent-leather Mary Janes, and she looked crestfallen when he made her leave. “I helped make the bouquet.” Her father shook his head, led her down the hall, and took her back to his office so she couldn’t sneak back into the room. And Jennifer kept her busy after that and showed her how to use the Xerox machine. She liked Jennifer a lot, almost like an aunt.

Jennifer was a little older than Hugues. She was a widow and had two children in college, and she was very sweet to Heloise, and brought her small thoughtful gifts from time to time, like barrettes for her hair, or a game, or a pair of funny mittens with faces on them, or fluffy earmuffs. Her heart went out to her, and Hugues confided in her at times how painful it was that Miriam left Heloise out of her life now. His parents had been right, she wasn’t a good wife, and she was an even worse mother, to Heloise anyway. She was far more interested in her two children with Greg Bones and her new rock star life with him. She was in the press incessantly as she followed him around. She had stopped modeling, and was constantly on tour with him, although she promised to have Heloise come to London for Christmas that year when they got back from a concert tour in Japan.

Heloise still hadn’t heard from her by Thanksgiving. It was always a busy time at the hotel. The hotel was full, and several families were staying there. They had two weddings scheduled in the ballroom. A famous actress was staying at the hotel with her assistant, her hairdresser, her current boyfriend, her bodyguard, her two children and their nanny, and they had a block of suites on the tenth floor. And when she helped the maids turn down the room, Heloise had been excited when she caught a glimpse of the actress, Eva Adams. Heloise thought she was even prettier than her pictures. She had two Chihuahuas with her, and she had been very nice when Heloise asked if she could pet the dogs. She had wanted to ask for her autograph but knew that was against the rules, and that was one rule her father never permitted her to break. No one in the hotel was ever allowed to ask their celebrity guests for autographs, and he was intransigent about it. He wanted guests to feel at home and protected, not invaded by employees requesting autographs. And of course they weren’t able to ask for photographs either. And no one ever broke those rules. It was one of the reasons why celebrities felt so comfortable at the hotel, because their privacy was respected, according to Hugues’s orders to his staff.

“She’s really pretty,” Heloise said happily as she chatted with Ernesta when they made the rounds.

“Yes, she is, and she’s a lot smaller than she looks on screen.” The movie star in question looked tiny and delicate, and had a dazzling smile and enormous blue eyes. She had been lounging in the suite with her entourage when they came in, and she was very pleasant to the maids and thanked them for what they did, which wasn’t always the case with movie stars. Heloise had heard many stories about how badly they behaved and how rude they were sometimes. But this one had been warm, friendly, and polite.

Heloise was still talking about her when she and Ernesta went down to the laundry with a rolling basket full of towels from the tenth floor. As Ernesta handed over the basket, Heloise noticed something sparkle in the heap of towels, and she reached in and grabbed it just before Ernesta dumped it into the big bin. Much to everyone’s surprise, Heloise held up a diamond bracelet in her hand. It shimmered enticingly and looked very expensive. It was about an inch wide and was solid diamonds all the way around.

“Wow!” Heloise exclaimed as everyone stared at what she’d found.

“You’d better call security,” the head operator of the laundry told Ernesta, and she nodded and reached for the phone, but Heloise shook her head, still holding the bracelet.

“I think we should call my father.” It looked like a very fancy bracelet, even to her, and Ernesta didn’t disagree. She wanted to get it into the right hands as quickly as possible. Someone was going to be reporting it as lost or stolen very soon. Guests often misplaced their valuables, and the maids were always the first to be accused. Ernesta wanted none of that. Heloise dialed her father’s office, and Jennifer answered, and when she heard the story, she told them to come up. So far no one had called.

Hugues was in his office, signing some papers at his desk, when Ernesta and Heloise appeared, and his daughter held out the bracelet, and his eyes grew wide.

“Where did you find that?”

“In the towels,” Heloise said as she handed it across the desk to him, and he took a closer look at it. There was no question, it was real, and a valuable piece.

“I’ll put it in the safe. Someone should be calling about it very soon.” He smiled at Ernesta then and thanked her for her honesty, and she looked at Heloise.

“I didn’t find it, sir. Your daughter did. She pulled it right out of the towels. I didn’t even see it.”

“I’m glad she did,” he said, and handed it to Jennifer to put in the safe. “Let’s see what happens,” he said quietly, and much to everyone’s surprise, no one called for two days. He had gone down the list of all the guests on the tenth floor, but none of them had reported the bracelet missing, and he had to wait for someone to call so it didn’t wind up in the wrong hands. He wondered by then if it had been a visitor to the room and not a guest.

Then finally Eva Adams called, the movie star with the large entourage. And unlike most celebrities, she didn’t report the bracelet stolen, she said that she had lost a bracelet somewhere in the last two days, and didn’t know if it was in the street or at the hotel, and she wanted to let Hugues know in case someone found it. He said that a bracelet had been found and offered to come to her suite. He asked her to describe it, and it was clearly the one Heloise had found in the towels from her floor. He brought it to her room immediately, and she was thrilled. He didn’t ask but guessed that it was worth half a million dollars or more. Maybe a million. The diamonds were large and the bracelet wide, it was a major piece of jewelry to lose, although he suspected it was probably insured. And she was ecstatic to get it back.

“Where did you find it?” she asked him as she put it back on her wrist with a look of gratitude and relief. He smiled, conscious of Eva’s beauty. He had a weakness for women who looked like her, and for actresses and models in general, which had been his downfall once before.

“My daughter saw it in the towels in the laundry room. We knew it was from someone on this floor, but we had to wait for your call.”

“I had no idea where I’d lost it. I called everyplace I’ve been in the last two days. I didn’t want to accuse anyone of taking it. I was pretty sure it must have fallen off my arm. What can I do for your daughter?” she asked, assuming that she was older than she was. She didn’t make the connection with the little girl in braces who had come in with the maids two days before and asked if she could pet the Chihuahuas. She had assumed she was the maid’s daughter, maybe following her mom at work over the holiday weekend. Eva hadn’t paid much attention to her, although Heloise’s impression was that she had been very nice. “I’d like to give her a reward,” Eva Adams said immediately.

“That won’t be necessary,” Hugues said, smiling at her. “She’s eight years old, and I wouldn’t let her accept a reward. She was with one of the maids, if you’d like to give her something. But my daughter enjoys wandering around the hotel, she just likes meeting the guests and ‘helping’ me out.” He laughed. He looked extremely handsome as he did, and Eva flirted with him a little. It was an occupational style for both of them and meant nothing.

Eva went to the desk in the room and signaled to her assistant, who rapidly brought her a checkbook. Eva sat down and wrote out a thousand-dollar check to cash for Ernesta, and handed it to Hugues. He accepted it gratefully for the maid.

“What’s your daughter’s name?” she asked him with interest.

“Heloise,” he said quietly, wondering what she had in mind, an autograph perhaps.

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 money 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 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.