“You think you’ll have time to tell her about us before she goes back?” Natalie asked, looking somewhat concerned. “I feel a little dishonest not having her know. She’s such an important part of your life, she deserves that respect.”
“I know she deserves to know,” he agreed with her, and he still had no idea how Heloise would take it. As far as she was concerned, Natalie was just someone who had done work for the hotel and nothing more. How she’d feel about Natalie being important to her father now was impossible to assess. “I have to have enough time with her to tell her about us, and I can’t tell her on Christmas Eve. And she’s leaving in less than a week after that.” That also didn’t give him enough time to calm her down and let her adjust to the idea if she was upset. It was a mess. “I’ll do the best I can,” he said, and put his arms around Natalie, but he could see that she was disappointed too.
“I guess it’s hard in a situation like this when she’s away at school. But it also doesn’t feel right to me to be involved with each other, and say nothing to her.” They had started sleeping together around Thanks giving, but in effect they had been dating since September, and it was already Christmas Eve. “There’s a sneaky feel to all this that I don’t like. Maybe you just need to tell her, and let her get used to the idea when she goes back to school.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Hugues said firmly. “It would be different if I’d ever been serious with another woman before, but I haven’t. This is a first, and it’s liable to be a big deal to her.” It was to him.
“It’s a big deal to me too,” Natalie said sadly, “and I’m a firm believer in truth in packaging. We’re in love with each other. That’s not a crime.” But they both knew it might be to Heloise. Natalie hoped not, but as tight as Hugues’s relationship had been with his daughter, this was an unusual situation and harder to predict.
“Just let me find the right time to tell her before she leaves. I promise I will,” he assured her, and after that they both made an effort to speak of other things. He had lunch sent up for them, instead of going downstairs, so they could be alone, and after they finished, he kissed her and gave her his gift. Natalie loved the locket, thanked him profusely, and put it on immediately. She was sorry she had made such a fuss about telling Heloise about them, but it was unnerving for her to remain a secret from his daughter. She wanted to be open about it, and make friends with her, and that hadn’t happened yet. And then she gave him her gift. She had bought him a very good-looking set of leather-bound books that were all first editions of the French classics that he referred to so often. There were twenty of them, and they were a beautiful collection that he was proud to own.
They sat and cuddled after that, and he was aching to make love to her, but on the off chance that Heloise might come home, they didn’t dare. Natalie had to leave at three o’clock to catch the train to Philadelphia and was coming back in two days. There would still be time for her to have lunch or dinner with Heloise, if Hugues could find an opportune moment to explain the situation to her.
He kissed her tenderly when she left, and they wished each other a merry Christmas, and then he went back to his office. He didn’t see Heloise again until six o’clock that night, and she was true to her word and spent a quiet evening with him. They had dinner in the dining room, went back upstairs after that, and went to midnight mass at St. Patrick’s, and when they got back from church, she had a call from her mother in London. Miriam said she was up early getting things ready for the children, and she wanted to wish Heloise and her father a merry Christmas.
