“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 Heloise 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.

She was particularly happy when a summer intern showed up at the front desk. He was a well-bred, intelligent boy from Milan who was attending hotel school in Europe and was going to intern at the Vendôme for three months. The chemistry was instant between them, and they often worked together at the front desk. His name was Roberto, he was twenty-one years old, and Hugues was very nervous when he saw them whispering one night behind the desk. He talked to Jennifer about it the next day. She was always his best resource for parental advice and female intuition.

“I don’t want her to get involved with that boy,” he said to Jennifer unhappily, and she laughed at him.

“I don’t think you’re going to have much to say about it, or not for very long. One of these days she’s going to fall head over heels for some guy, and there won’t be a damn thing you can do about it, except pray he’s a good guy.” Her own children had both married, and she was a grandmother now. What she worried about most for Hugues was that one day Heloise would find the man of her dreams and leave, and he would be heartbroken without her. She was an integral part of his daily life, even more so because she hardly ever saw or spoke to her mother. It created an unusually close bond between them. And Jennifer knew they were both going to suffer one day when the cord was cut.