Hotel Vendome

About the Book

Swiss-born Hugues Martin has worked for the world’s most prestigious hotels, so when he purchases a small, run-down place in New York, everyone thinks he must be crazy! He alone sees it for the rough diamond it is, transforming it into a beautiful boutique hotel of impeccable elegance, run with the precision and attention to detail he learnt through his hotelier training in Europe.

The Hotel Vendome soon becomes renowned for its unparalleled service, and is the ideal New York refuge for the rich and famous, as well as a perfect home for Hugues’ beautiful wife and their young daughter. But when his wife tires of his obsession for the hotel, she walks out on him for a notorious rock star, leaving Hugues a single parent to four-year-old Heloise.

And so the kind hotel staff quickly embrace the little girl, becoming Heloise’s family and she has a happy upbringing, adored by the fascinating milieu of high-profile guests. Hugues’ commitment to his work has heavily influenced his daughter, so he is delighted when she decides she wants to follow in his footsteps - hotelier training in Switzerland.

But for a father and daughter who have always relied solely on each other, how is Hugues going to cope with his daughter so far away? Will Heloise ever be able to accept another woman in her father’s life? And will Hugues have to choose between them?

As life marches quickly on, the close-knit unit at Hotel Vendome are forced to form new bonds, face the often bittersweetness of life, and work out the true meaning of love and family against the backdrop of a glamorous hotel.

Contents

Cover

About the Book

Title Page

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

About the Author

Also by Danielle Steel

Copyright

To my adorable, wonderful children,

Beatie, Trevor, Todd, Nick, Sam,

Victoria, Vanessa, Maxx, and Zara,

Joy of my life, music of my soul,

You are the delight in my days!

How incredibly lucky and blessed

I am to have you!

All my love,

Mommy/DS

Chapter 1

THE SCENE IN the lobby of the Hotel Vendome on East 69th Street in New York was one of impeccable elegance and meticulous precision. The black-and-white-checked marble floors were immaculate, red runners were rolled out the instant there was a drop of rain outside, the moldings on the walls were exquisite, and the enormous crystal chandelier that hung in the lobby was reminiscent of the finest palaces in Europe. The hotel was much smaller than the one that had inspired its decor, but for practiced travelers, it was remarkably similar to the Ritz in Paris, where the Hotel Vendome’s owner had worked as an assistant manager for two years, during his training in the finest hotels in Europe.

Hugues Martin was forty years old, a graduate of the illustrious and respected Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in Switzerland, and the hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was his dream. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he had been, how perfectly it had all come together five years before. His Swiss banker father and equally conservative mother had been devastated when he announced that he wanted to go to hotel school. He came from a family of bankers, and they thought that running a hotel, or working in one, had a seamy quality to it, of which they strongly disapproved. They had done everything they could to talk him out of it, to no avail. After four years at the school in Lausanne, he trained and eventually had respected positions at the Hotel du Cap in Cap d’Antibes, the Ritz in Paris, and Claridge’s in London, and even did a brief stint at the famed Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. He figured out during that time that if he ever had his own hotel, he wanted it to be somewhere in the States.

Hugues worked at the Plaza in New York before it closed for extensive renovations, and he assumed that he was still light-years away from his dream. Then it happened. The Hotel Mulberry was put up for sale, a small tired hotel that had been run-down for years and had never been considered chic, despite its perfect location. When he heard about it, Hugues put together every penny of his savings, took out every loan he could get in both New York and Switzerland, and used all of the modest inheritance his parents had left him, which he had carefully put aside and invested. And the combination made the purchase of the hotel possible. He just managed to do it, with a mortgage on the building. And suddenly Hugues was able to buy the Mulberry and do the necessary renovations, which took two years, and at the end of it the Hotel Vendome was born, to the amazement of New Yorkers, most of whom said they had never even realized that there was a hotel in that location.