Hotel Vendome

by Danielle Steel

  They were having a rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, for family and people from out of town. The only family she had were her brother, his wife, and their children, and Hugues had none at all except Heloise. But they were still expecting sixty guests at the rehearsal dinner and holding it in a room they used as a private dining room upstairs. There would be no music and no dancing, so it was a simpler event to plan. But they still needed flowers, and had to decide about the menus and the wines, and the calligrapher had to do place cards and seating charts. Natalie felt as though she were running a war, with charts and lists everywhere, and she carried a radio so Sally could communicate with her at all times. Natalie had left Heloise out of the arrangements in deference to her, but she had invited her to her bachelorette dinner, which Heloise declined, saying she had to work, which was true. But she also didn’t want to celebrate the fact that her father was marrying her. It would have been hypocritical and sounded embarrassing to her to watch middle-aged women give her sexy underwear to seduce her father. Natalie was doing fine as it was.

  The male employees of the hotel had given Hugues a surprise bachelor dinner the month before, with Moroccan food and belly dancers, but in spite of that it was a pretty tame event. They had also invited his few friends, all of whom worked or ran other hotels. Given the amount of time he spent working, it was hard for him to maintain friendships with anyone, which was the nature of the business. The hotel and the people in it became your life and left you time for no one else. But the bachelor party had been fun, and Hugues had danced with several of the girls, but no one had done anything embarrassing or gotten out of line, which wasn’t always the case with other bachelor dinners they’d had at the hotel, where hookers were often involved and paid for by one of the guests. No one would have dared do that to Hugues, he wasn’t that kind of man, and it was all good fun.

  By the day before the wedding, Natalie was a nervous wreck. She had taken a room on another floor to hang her wedding dress and where she would get her hair and makeup done the day of the wedding. And her brother and sister-in-law were staying at the hotel. Only their two boys had come; their twin sisters were still too sick with mono. And the day before the wedding, Natalie had booked a massage and a manicure and pedicure. Heloise saw her at the hairdresser that afternoon, wearing a masque. She stopped in to say hello, and Natalie opened her eyes when she heard her voice. She had hardly seen her in days.

  “How’s it going?” Heloise asked politely.

  “Terrible,” Natalie said, trying not to move her mouth too much so she didn’t crack the masque, which looked like green clay. She felt like the witch in The Wizard of Oz. “My face is breaking out. My stomach is upset. The singer for the band is stuck in Las Vegas and isn’t coming. And I wish we’d eloped.” She looked like she was about to cry.

  “It’ll be fine,” Heloise reassured her. “Just try to relax.” And then, with a sigh, she conceded silently. She knew a lot more about these things than her future stepmother, and she had done nothing to help so far. “Do you want me to talk to Sally?” she asked softly. Natalie stared at her and nodded.

  “Would you mind? I have no idea what I’m doing, and I’m so nervous I feel nuts.” And she was taking medication that made her feel more so, but she didn’t tell Heloise that. Hugues was aware of it and trying to do all he could to calm her down. But the medication, coupled with the normal stresses of planning a wedding, was overwhelming her, and she looked it.

  “I’ll go up to her office in a few minutes when I have a break,” Heloise promised with a smile. “Just concentrate on your hair and nails. Leave the rest to us. And take a nap.” Natalie nodded and watched her leave the hair salon. She had the feeling the war might finally be over. She wasn’t sure that it had ended, but she hadn’t heard gunfire since Heloise and Hugues had returned from Lausanne.

  Half an hour later Heloise was upstairs with Sally, going over the details of the wedding. Most of it was under control, and she and the very competent catering manager discussed what wasn’t and made a few changes that no one would notice, about placement of tables, and the size of tabletops. Someone had ordered the wrong chairs, and Heloise asked for the best ones. The flow of guests, the timing, seating charts, where to place the ceremony so everyone could see it—they were subtle changes, but they made a difference. Together she and Sally corrected it all. And Sally said it was nice of her to do it.

  There was supposed to be a rehearsal, but it had been canceled because her relatives were coming in too late and there was no time before the rehearsal dinner. And Heloise told Sally to have all the flowers for Natalie and her sister-in-law, for Natalie’s hair and both bouquets, sent up to the suite that Natalie was using for her dress. And the sprig of lily of the valley for Hugues’s lapel should go to his room, not hers. Suddenly it no longer made Heloise feel sick to think about the wedding. She had made her peace with it and wanted to help.

  “What about you?” Sally asked her cautiously. There had been no flowers ordered for her. “Are you carrying a bouquet?” She hadn’t dared ask Heloise anything about the wedding until then. Now she seemed to be on board.

  “I’m not in the wedding,” Heloise said quietly, looking a little sheepish.

  “You’re not?” Sally looked surprised, and realized she had never discussed it with the bride. She didn’t ask Heloise why. She knew. And so did everyone in the hotel. Heloise had made no secret of how much she disapproved of the marriage since it was announced.

  “My father asked me to be his witness, instead of a best man.” It was more of a European tradition, but she had never confirmed it to him, and he hadn’t pressed the point. He was just going to be grateful if she came to the wedding, without expecting more. And even that hadn’t been sure. She had threatened not to many times. She thought about it then as she looked at Sally, and they were old friends, since she’d been a child. “You’d better make a sprig of lily of the valley for me, and I’ll pin it to my dress.” It identified her with the groom, not the bride, and was what a best man would have worn in her place, or a small white rose, but she preferred lily of the valley, which had been her favorite flower all her life. She loved it when brides used it in their bouquets. Natalie was carrying white Phalaenopsis orchids, which she said would work well with her dress and were more sophisticated.

  Heloise finished up the details with Sally then, and both of them were satisfied. They had tied up a lot of loose ends that Natalie had been unsure of, and Sally didn’t want to make the decisions for her. Now Heloise had it all in good control and had made excellent choices. She loved weddings and was great at details.

  And then she went upstairs to their apartment. She was on her lunch break from the desk. Natalie had just walked in and was lying on the couch, looking sick.

  “Are you okay?” Heloise asked solicitously, happy with the subtle improvements she and Sally had made to the wedding.

  “No. I’m a wreck. Did you see Sally?” She looked panicked, as Heloise smiled.

  “Everything is under control. Don’t even think about it now. Just coast from here to tomorrow. What are you wearing tonight?” Heloise hadn’t even thought about it yet herself. She had never gone shopping for the wedding since she wasn’t sure she would go.

  “A blue satin dress,” Natalie answered. “The flowers on the tables are blue too.”

  “I know. I just reviewed everything.” She smiled. “Do you want a cup of tea?”

  Natalie nodded, looking anxious, and smiled gratefully when Heloise handed her a cup of Earl Grey a few minutes later. Heloise was like a different person now and Natalie was impressed. Hugues had been right. Heloise had calmed down.

  “I think this is what mothers are for,” Natalie said, after sipping the tea, which seemed to help. “Although mine never was. I had one of those uptight Main Line mothers who acted like we were strangers and had never taken her clothes off long enough to have sex or give birth. She was ice cold.” Heloise smiled at the description and thought of
her own with her rock star life. “My father died when I was twelve. She put me in boarding school then, and I hardly ever saw her again. She moved to Europe, and had me over for a couple of weeks a year with my brother, whom I never got to see either. And she died when I was in college. It was like going to a stranger’s funeral. I never really knew her, and she had no interest in knowing me. I barely knew my brother till I was out of college, and now we’re good friends. He’s ten years older than I am, so he was older when my father died, but our mother was a total mystery to both of us. She should never have had children, but did because it was the right thing to do. And as soon as my father died, she got rid of me, and my brother had already been in boarding school for years, and I hardly saw him when he was in college. I have no idea what her life was like after my father died. I always wondered if she had a boyfriend. I hope so for her sake. All we ever talked about were the weather and good manners, and she played a lot of bridge. I was never on her radar screen except for a few weeks a year. So she wouldn’t be helping me do this wedding either, if she were still alive. Thanks for talking to Sally,” she said to Heloise, who looked pensive and was smiling at her. She was touched by what Natalie had shared.

  “My mom is pretty weird too. She’s married to a rock star, I guess Dad told you. He does a lot of drugs and has a lot of crazy people hanging around. She loves it. She left my dad for him when I was four, had two new kids pretty quickly, and I was history after that. It’s kind of the same deal as your mother. She acts like I’m someone else’s kid and talks to me like a stranger when I see her. I hate going there. I see her about once a year, if it’s convenient for her, which it never is. I feel like she divorced me when she divorced my dad.” What she said was honest, and Natalie could see that it was painful for her, by the look in her eyes.

  “That must hurt,” Natalie said sympathetically. It was the first time they had spoken to each other like human beings, and they shared an unexpected bond. The Crazy Mothers Club, as Natalie called it to her friends. Or maybe it should have been called the Lousy Mothers Club. There seemed to be a lot of those in the world. And they inflicted scars on every child they touched. Natalie had invested years in therapy to get over hers.

  “It does hurt,” Heloise admitted to her, and, more important, to herself.

  “I used to cry for weeks after I saw mine,” Natalie confessed. “It’s horrible to say, but it was easier for me after she died. She couldn’t disappoint me anymore. It’s worse when they’re alive and don’t want to see you, or do and act like they don’t remember who you are. I hated that.”

  “I hate seeing mine too,” Heloise said. It was a relief to talk about it and admit the truth. She didn’t like talking about it with her father. Just hearing Miriam’s name upset him, and she felt disloyal to her mother when she told him how bad it was, so she rarely did. “It always hurts. And I always feel like the forgotten person when I’m there. Like I’m a houseguest or a stranger or someone she never knew. I don’t know how she could just walk away like that, but she did. She’s not so great with her other two kids either, they’re both brats,” she said with a smile.

  “It’s all about who she is as a person,” Natalie explained to her, “not about something you did wrong or don’t have. It took me years to understand it, but people like that don’t have anything to give. To anyone. It’s only about them.”

  “Yeah,” Heloise said as though a lightbulb had gone on while they were talking. Natalie understood it perfectly.

  “I’ve always been afraid to have kids because I was afraid I’d be like her. And I don’t want to do to anyone what she did to me,” Natalie said honestly.

  “I feel that way too,” Heloise said softly. “My dad was great, but it’s weird having only one parent when the other one is out there somewhere and doesn’t want you. I hated explaining that to my friends, although for a while they were impressed because of Greg. But he’s a jerk.”

  “At least you had your dad,” Natalie reminded her, and Heloise nodded. And now she had to share him with her. But it didn’t seem quite so bad now. She could see why her father loved her. She was honest, sincere, and caring, and she tried hard. And Heloise also realized that Natalie had never lost her temper once in the past six months, no matter how badly Heloise behaved. It said something about her. “I hardly ever saw my father, and he was even colder than my mother,” Natalie added. “I think they both hated kids.”

  “My dad is great,” Heloise confirmed. The two women looked at each other for a long moment and exchanged a smile.

  “Thank you for helping me with the wedding. I’m really scared,” Natalie confessed. It made her seem so young and vulnerable that Heloise felt sorry for her. She didn’t seem like an ominous opponent anymore, just a lonely woman of very human scale who had mean parents and was grateful to have found Hugues. It was something Heloise could cope with, and not the Mata Hari she had feared.

  “The wedding will be fine,” Heloise reassured her. “I promise. And if anything happens, I’ll take care of it.” And she was fully capable of doing so, with or without Sally’s help. She felt a bond with Natalie now after what they had shared. “You just relax and have fun. It’s your special day.”

  “I had no idea weddings were so complicated and stressful to organize when I planned this. I’ve been in way over my head,” she admitted with a grin. “I never planned to have one, so I don’t know anything about all the details.”

  “Weddings are not that hard,” Heloise said easily. “Decorating is much harder, and you’re great at that. This is just a lot of silly details. I love my apartment, by the way. You did a great job. All my friends are jealous of me.” She smiled, and Natalie looked pleased. They were getting a lot of housekeeping done that afternoon, throwing out the garbage, opening the shades, and letting the sunlight in.

  “It was fun to do.” She got off the couch then and looked better than she had before. She would have liked to hug Heloise but didn’t want to overstep any boundaries. They had come far in the last two hours, and they both knew it. And she didn’t want to spoil it now by rushing Heloise or crowding her.

  “I’ve got to go back to work. See you at the dinner tonight,” Heloise said as she put her uniform jacket back on and her shoes. “And remember, all you have to do is look pretty and have fun. Leave the rest to us. You don’t need to be scared, or worry about a thing.”

  “Thank you.” Natalie smiled and looked touched, and a minute later Heloise left to go back to the front desk. Five minutes after that Hugues walked into the apartment and had missed Heloise completely.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked, surprised to see Natalie there at that hour, looking a little dazed.

  “Trying to catch my breath,” she said honestly. “I just had a really nice talk with Heloise,” she reported, and looked happy about it.

  “What about?” He looked surprised and pleased as he sat down on the couch with his future wife. He loved the idea that she was going to be his wife and could hardly wait.

  “Our mothers. Mine wasn’t such a sweetheart either. I told her about it. And she talked about hers. Different look and lifestyle, but same kind of people. Narcissists. Women who should never have had kids.” Hugues agreed. He had been making up for it ever since, and he was sure her other two children would turn out to be disasters, or on drugs like their father. “It was nice talking to her. She’s a really sweet kid. She’s helping me with the wedding,” Natalie said gratefully. “She was wonderful to me.” Tears sprang to her eyes as she said it. It was a huge relief. The past six months of being the object of Heloise’s hatred had been hard. She had gone back to her therapist about it.

  “I’m glad she came around,” Hugues said, looking relieved too, and then he leaned over and kissed his bride. “You look gorgeous, by the way. What are you doing now?” he asked as he took off his jacket.

  “Nothing. Why? I was going to have a nap before tonight. And I’m having a massage at five.”

  “Perfect. M
y three o’clock just canceled. I have a haircut at six. And I need a nap too.” He looked at her mischievously, and she grinned. And they rushed into the bedroom like children. The Do Not Disturb was already on the door. Their clothes were off within seconds, and he slid into bed with her and they made love like two wild happy kids. And she loved knowing that in one more day she would be his forever.

  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.