Danielle Steel - Hotel Vendome

“Ready when you are, Mrs. Martin,” she said to Natalie as tears filled the bride’s eyes.

“Don’t you dare cry and screw up your makeup!” Heloise warned her. The makeup artist had come up with the hairdresser that morning and done a beautiful job with very light makeup. You could hardly tell she was wearing any at all, which was just the right look for her.

“I’m so excited and so scared!” Natalie said, torn between giggles and tears.

“You’re okay!” Heloise reassured her, and left her with Sally. In the ballroom Jean’s oldest son Brad escorted both Heloise and Jean down the aisle. Jean took her place next to her youngest boy, and Brad slipped in next to her. Their father had gone to find his sister and walk her down the aisle to give her away, and Heloise took her place beside her father at the altar. They were wearing matching sprigs of lily of the valley, and he looked nervous, kissed her, and squeezed his daughter’s hand. He looked as anxious as Natalie had, waiting in the hallway. The music was playing softly, and then suddenly, the orchestra began to play Debussy’s water music, and the vision that was Natalie appeared in the doorway on her brother’s arm and proceeded sedately down the aisle. She looked absolutely gorgeous and deceptively calm, and when Heloise turned to glance at her father, she saw that there were tears rolling down his cheeks as he looked at his bride.

The bride and groom both cried through the ceremony, and then finally the minister declared them man and wife and told Hugues he could kiss her. And as soon as he had, in a single swift gesture, he turned to kiss Heloise as well, and he had an arm around each of their waists. It was the most powerful message he could have given her that she would never be left out, and they were a threesome now. And then Natalie and Heloise kissed each other and both of them were crying, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

The music picked up as they formed a receiving line to greet two hundred and fourteen guests, and the wedding was under way. Sally came over to check with Heloise several times, but everything was going smoothly. There were no problems, everyone was having a good time, and the orchestra was very good.

Hugues and Natalie did the first dance, and then he danced with Heloise, and Natalie with her brother, and eventually people found their seats for the late lunch that Natalie and Sally had planned. And all the most important long-term staff members were there. Heloise was too excited to eat. When she finally sat down, she found herself sitting next to Brad, and they struck up a conversation about law school and the Ecole Hoteliere in Lausanne. He seemed fascinated by what she did, but mostly he was entranced with her. He asked her to dance shortly after she had danced with her father. And they hardly left the floor all afternoon. Natalie noticed them with a smile, and said something to Hugues. He glanced over casually and observed his daughter deeply engrossed in conversation with the tall handsome young man who looked totally mesmerized by her.

And then finally the moment came to cut the cake. As promised, they cut it, and Natalie fed him a forkful of it discreetly, and the waiters took it away to serve it after that. It had been a painless procedure for Hugues, who was having a ball at his own wedding. He danced with his wife, kissed her every chance he got, and told everyone he had never seen such a beautiful woman in his life. He wanted to dance with Heloise again too, but every time he looked for her, she was on the dance floor with Brad, and he didn’t want to interrupt or cut in, so he danced with Natalie again.

And at last it was time for Natalie to toss the bouquet. A small staircase had been set up to make it easier for her to do it and a prettier shot for the photographers and video camera. She stood at the top of the short staircase covered in white satin and flowers, as all the single women gathered round, and just as she had so often wanted to as a little girl, and occasionally managed when no one was looking, Heloise stood in the middle of the crowd and waited for the bouquet to fly over her head. There were easily two dozen women standing there, watching Natalie in rapt anticipation, and she took careful aim. Her eyes met Heloise’s for a knowing moment, and almost in slow motion, she reached up and tossed in precisely the right direction, and the tossing bouquet landed squarely in her stepdaughter’s outstretched hand. Everyone in the room cheered, and Heloise held it aloft like a trophy and smiled widely at Natalie and mouthed “Thank you!” It made up for all the times she hadn’t been allowed to reach for it as a little girl, and Hugues’s smile, watching her, was just as wide. It was an additional gift for him. The two women he loved had made friends.

Brad came back to find her again just after she caught the bouquet, and the music was starting up. It was getting livelier and younger as the afternoon wore on. “If that’s an omen that you’re the next bride in the room, then you’re a dangerous woman to dance with,” he teased her. “But I’ll brave it anyway. Care to dance?” She set the prized bouquet down at her table and headed back to the dance floor with him. They were there for ages until Sally came to tell her that Natalie had gone upstairs to change. Her sister-in-law had gone with her, and Sally said Heloise could stay at the party, and she’d let her know when they were ready to leave. Her father had disappeared too. And they had already posed for photographs earlier in the day, right after the receiving line, in a small room adjacent to the ballroom.

The bridal couple were flying to Los Angeles that night, staying at the Bel Air, and then flying on to the Palmilla in Baja the next day. They had thought of spending their wedding night here at the hotel, but Hugues knew that if he did, he’d be called on for every crisis, and he wanted to leave town immediately after the wedding, which was why they had decided on a daytime ceremony and reception.

Heloise continued dancing with Brad until Sally came to get her, and then they both went outside with a crowd of people to watch them leave the hotel. Jennifer and Bruce were there with other wedding guests. The Rolls was waiting for them, and bellmen were handing out rose petals, and a few minutes later Hugues and Natalie appeared. He wore a beige linen suit with a white shirt and an immaculate yellow Hermes tie, and Natalie was wearing a white Chanel suit and her new diamond earrings. They looked like a magazine cover as Hugues pulled his daughter into his arms and hugged her tight.

“I love you,” he said, holding her for a minute, and then Natalie hugged her, everyone threw rose petals, and a moment later they got into the car, and they all waved as they drove away. Heloise stood watching them for a long minute, fighting back tears, and feeling unexpectedly abandoned as Brad touched her arm and was looking down at her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. They’ll be back in two weeks,” she reminded herself, and then went back to the party with him.

It had been hard watching her father leave, but Brad was a good distraction when they went back to the wedding, and she smiled when she saw Jennifer and Bruce dancing a fast dance together. They were pretty good. And Brad and Heloise got back on the dance floor too as the band played on.

They were among the last guests to leave, and it was the best party she had ever been to. And as the party ended, Heloise invited some of the young people, and both of Natalie’s nephews, to her new rooms. They ordered beer and hamburgers and pizza much later, and the room was full of laughing, and talking until after midnight, and Brad looked as though he hated to leave her. He said he was spending the next day with his parents before they went back to Philadelphia with his brother, but he asked if she’d like to have dinner with him sometime next week. And she smiled at him and nodded. She liked that idea very much, and it was interesting that he was at Columbia Law School and not somewhere far away. He promised to call her and set it up, and she stayed in her own apartment that night. It would have been too lonely upstairs without Natalie and her father. She had already decided to move her things down the next day.