“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.”