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.
“We’re talking about the next few weddings, to bring Hilary up to speed,” he said calmly, looking unconcerned.
It amused him that whenever he wanted a private moment, his daughter never failed to show up. And he didn’t know why, but he could sense the tension between the temporary catering manager and his daughter. It made no sense. He had invited Hilary to his office for a drink after the wedding. She had done a good job, said she wanted to talk to him, and he wanted to put her at ease. And she was a lovely-looking young woman. There was no harm in sharing a glass of champagne.
“Why don’t you go upstairs, Heloise?” he suggested. “I’ll be up in time for dinner.” It was clear he wanted to be alone with Hilary. Heloise looked upset when she left the room and went back to their apartment.
“She’s very possessive of you, and her turf,” Hilary commented with an innocent smile, and he looked at her ruefully and nodded.
“She’s been the woman in my life since she was four, almost all her life, as she remembers it. She likes having me to herself.” He smiled apologetically.
“In a few years she’ll be gone,” Hilary said thoughtfully, “and you’ll wind up alone.” She sounded sympathetic. “You can’t let her run your life. She’s just a little girl.” And Hilary was a big girl who knew a golden opportunity when she saw it and planned to make the most of it while she was there. She would have liked n
othing better than to become the girlfriend, or better yet the wife, of the owner of the hotel. She had read Hugues’s bios in hotel magazines for years. The temporary job at the Vendôme was her dream, and so was he. She saw this as a long-term opportunity and had pounced on it when the agency offered to send her there. She had done her homework, and her plan was to seduce Hugues Martin, and she wasn’t going to let a precocious twelve-year-old stand in her way.
They drank half the bottle of champagne together, and after that Hugues went to his apartment upstairs. He was attracted to Hilary, but it was against his better judgment to get involved with an employee. She was very seductive, and he told himself that at least she was a temp. Maybe he could go out with her after she left. He was very attracted to her; and Hilary was making the most of it and flirting with him.
When he got to the apartment, Heloise was watching a movie on TV, looking unhappy. She hardly spoke at dinner, and most of Hugues’s efforts to engage her in conversation went ignored, until she finally turned to him, with tears in her eyes.
“That woman is after you, Papa. She’s a liar, and she’s mean to everyone. She yelled at Jan and made her cry.”
“She gets good results,” he defended Hilary quietly. “We’ve never had a wedding as pretty. Everything went smoothly today. She runs a tight ship. And she’s not after me,” he reassured her. It was more the reverse. He was after her. “You have nothing to worry about. You’re the only woman in my life.” He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, and Heloise looked at him cautiously, wanting it to be true forever.
“Okay, I’m sorry,” she said, mollified, and they chatted till the end of dinner. But she hated Hilary more than ever. She could sense that she was after Hugues. And there was something insincere about her, although Heloise didn’t know what it was.
For the next several weeks Hilary made enemies among the employees and put all her energy into charming Hugues. She was on a mission. She dropped by his office, used every excuse to talk to him, and constantly asked his advice about how “things were done at the Vendôme.” It was a little oppressive, although he didn’t seem to mind it, and it flattered him, and Jennifer noticed it too. Everyone did. By the time she’d been there a month, it was clear that she was determined to land the owner of the hotel, at the altar if possible, or at least in bed. She asked him to show up at every wedding, flirted with him shamelessly, and Hugues remained proper and discreet, but they could see he was attracted to her, and Jennifer caught them kissing once in his office. She’d never seen him do that before. Hilary was relentless in her pursuit.
Jennifer was uncomfortable about her. Hilary was obvious in all her games and ploys, but she was so convincing and seemed so innocent that Hugues appeared to be falling for it hook, line, and sinker, which was unusual for him. He was usually smarter than that but she was good at the game. She was twenty-seven years old, eighteen years younger than he, and she seemed like a dangerous woman to Jennifer. And Heloise had sensed the same thing about her. What everyone felt, except Hugues, was that Hilary was not sincere. And she was playing Hugues like a violin.
Hilary seemed to get a better grip on him every day. He looked completely besotted whenever she walked into a room. Heloise was beside herself over her and talking constantly to Jan and Jennifer about her. She wanted to protect her father but didn’t know how, and then destiny intervened.
In Hilary’s tenth week at the hotel, with everyone she worked with hating her and their boss in her back pocket, providence was on Heloise’s side. She was working on a science project at school and didn’t have time for lunch, and she was starving when she got home. Instead of ordering room service, as she often did, she went down to the kitchen to find something for herself. She walked into the cold room, not sure what she wanted, and found Hilary there, wrapped around one of the male sous chefs like a snake, with her skirt hiked up to her waist, and his hand between her legs.
Heloise had never seen anything quite so graphic, but she got the drift. She was too stunned to say a word, as he pushed Hilary against the wall and reached into his checkered pants. Heloise said nothing, but with impressive clarity of mind, she held up the cell phone in her hand and snapped a picture of them. The sous chef was Italian, unbelievably handsome, and about twenty-four years old. It was obvious even to Heloise what had been about to happen.
She ran out of the cold room, before they could stop her or grab the phone. She was halfway up the stairs before they came out of the cold room, looking embarrassed. Hilary tried to look dignified but only looked foolish as the young Italian grinned. The entire kitchen staff knew it had been going on for several weeks, when she wasn’t pursuing Hugues. This was just a fling. Hugues was more of a long-term plan for her, an investment for her future, as everyone had figured out. She was a piece of work.
Breathless and with her hair flying, Heloise marched into her father’s office and stared at him across the desk.
“Where have you been? You look like you’ve run a mile.” He was smiling at her.
She didn’t say a word. She brought up the picture of Hilary and the Italian on her cell phone and laid it on her father’s desk, right in front of him, and ran out of the room. It illustrated the old adage that one picture is worth a thousand words.
No one ever knew what happened between them after that. Hugues gave Heloise back her phone that night without a word. The photograph of Hilary and the sous chef had disappeared. Hugues said nothing to Jennifer or anyone else about it. Sally came back two days later, still on a cane, but happy to be back, a little earlier than planned. And Hilary disappeared without a trace the day after the photograph was taken of her with the Italian sous chef. No one dared to mention her, and the sous chef was smart enough to say nothing. It had just been a game for him.
Hugues looked slightly embarrassed when he glanced at Jennifer the day after the photo incident, as he sat down in his office. It had been a close call. He hadn’t been fully involved with her yet, but he’d come close. And Hilary had had big plans for him in mind. Even he understood that now. Hilary had never been as innocent as she looked. By sheer luck, his daughter had spared him a dire fate.
“I guess it’s never too early or too late to be a fool,” he said to Jennifer with a sheepish grin as she set his coffee down on his desk.
“She was good at what she did,” Jennifer said softly, and left the room. They were all grateful that Heloise had seen through her and exposed Hilary to her dad. Heloise had saved the day.
Chapter 5
AT SEVENTEEN, THE Hotel Vendôme was still all of Heloise’s world. She finished her junior year of high school, or its equivalent, and passed her first baccalaureate at the Lycée, and her father planned a summer of work for her. She was working at the front desk, in a trim navy blue uniform suit, like the other women wore. She filled in at the concierge desk, and her father had arranged for an internship for her at a sleepy little hotel in Bordeaux. An old friend of his from hotel school ran it now, and Hugues thought it would be great experience for her as a summer job. He didn’t expect her to go into the hotel business, and didn’t think he wanted her to, but he wanted her to do more than just hang around the hotel. And she was going to spend part of August in St. Tropez with her mother and Greg. Hugues was a great believer in filling one’s time. He wanted her to apply to college in the fall, preferably at Barnard or NYU so she could stay in New York, and he thought that two summer internships would look good on her application, one at their hotel and the other in Bordeaux. And Heloise liked the idea too. Like her father, she didn’t like being idle.
At almost eighteen, the biggest change in her life in recent years, other than her looks, was the addition of boys to her life. She had had several flirtations at school, and Mrs. Van Damme had introduced Heloise to her grandson Clayton earlier that year, when he came to visit from St. Paul’s. They had met when they were both thirteen and then forgot about each other. He had been in boarding school for four years of high school and graduated just as Helo
ise started her summer internship at the hotel. His grandmother had invited him to stay at the hotel with her in New York, and he was excited about it, and liked Heloise. They went to dinner and the movies several times and a concert in Central Park. He was going to Yale in the fall, and they enjoyed spending time together before Heloise was due to leave for France. It wasn’t serious, and they both realized quickly they just wanted to be friends. There was no chemistry between them, but the makings of a real friendship. He was a year ahead of her in school, and they were both nervous about college, and talked about it. He was a sweet boy, and his grandmother loved seeing them together. She loved them both.
Heloise was a beautiful girl. She wore her red hair tied up in a bun when she worked at the desk, and Clayton loved to tease her when she was at work and he breezed through the lobby on his way out. The other desk clerks kidded her about him, but she didn’t care. Everyone always asked her if she had a boyfriend, but she didn’t.
Hugues had turned fifty that year and worked all the time, even harder. A little salt had appeared at his temples, woven into his dark hair. He was prouder of Heloise than ever. He loved that she had gotten the first part of her baccalaureate and would complete it at the end of senior year. And he wanted her to think about careers and what she wanted to do. His dream of having her work at the hotel had faded. He wanted more than that for her and was encouraging her to think about law school, which didn’t appeal to her. He thought a career in law would open many doors to her, while the hotel would eat up her life. The one thing he didn’t want was for her to go away to school, he would have missed her too much, and he said it to her often. And she didn’t want to anyway. She had no desire whatsoever to leave the cocoon of the hotel and had never rebelled against it. Her life was still centered there.
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