Free Hide Yourself Away by Mary Jane Clark Page B

operation, it was so much harder to do her physically demanding job. Making beds,emptying trash, cleaning toilets, and scrubbing bathtubs was not a lot of fun under the best of circumstances. But after breast cancer surgery and treatment it was next to impossible. Izzie wasn’t sure how much longer she could do it. She went home exhausted every day, collapsing in bed as soon as she got into the house.
    As she got off the elevator on the second floor, Izzie began to feel light-headed. She talked to herself as she had so often since Padraic passed away. You can do it, Izzie girl. You can do it.
    She made it to the hotel room door and knocked.
    “Just a minute” came the call from inside.
    But by the time the door opened, Izzie had slid to the floor.

    “Oh my God, are you all right?” Grace crouched toward the chambermaid. “Hang on. I’ll call for help.”
    “No. Don’t.” The woman was surprisingly adamant.
    “Well, what can I do to help you? A glass of water?”
    Holding on to the doorjamb, the frail woman struggled to get to her feet while looking from side to side down the hallway. “I don’t want anyone to see me like this. I don’t suppose I could come inside for a minute?”
    Grace was not in the habit of having people she had never met come into her hotel room, but there was something in the expression on the woman’s careworn face that prompted her toescort the stranger in and steer her to the love seat at the side of the room. As the chambermaid sat down, Grace went into the bathroom, coming out again with a glass of water. “Here, take a sip of this.”
    As the woman obeyed, Grace noticed the boyishly short, feathery, gray hair. She recognized the new growth. That was just the way her mother’s hair had looked when it grew in again after chemotherapy.
    “I’m Grace Callahan.”
    “Izzie O’Malley,” the woman said softly.
    “Please, Izzie. Let me call down to the front desk. They can send someone up to check on you.”
    “No, thank you, Miss. That isn’t a good idea. I don’t want them thinking I can’t do my job.”
    Grace nodded with understanding. “All right, but maybe I could call a friend or relative to come pick you up.”
    Izzie shook her head. “No, I’ll be fine, if I can just sit here a minute longer.” She glanced at the linen slacks lying on top of the bed. “Go ahead and do what you were going to do, please. I’ll leave in just a little bit.”
    Grace glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. B.J. was probably already downstairs waiting for her. She plugged in the iron.
    “You’re here with the KEY people from New York?” Izzie asked, spotting the logo on the canvas tote bag parked on the chair by the desk.
    “Yes.”
    “That must be exciting.”
    “We’ll see. This is my first assignment out on the road and I’m trying to prove myself to them. So I’m a little nervous.” Grace didn’t feel it necessary to explain the whole internship situation, but she did think that Izzie could identify with needing to please one’s employer. “I have a lot riding on this. I want to impress my bosses.”
    As Grace slid the iron back and forth across the linen, Izzie rose from the love seat.
    “I’m all right now.”
    “You’re sure? Maybe my friend and I can drop you at home?”
    “No, Miss. You’ve been too kind already. Thank you very much.”
    Walking slowly back down the hallway to the elevator, Izzie felt better. There were nice people out there, and Grace Callahan was one of them. She hoped the young woman did well with that job of hers.
    By the time Izzie let herself into her small, shingled bungalow, she had come up with a tentative plan. If she decided to go public with what she knew, Grace Callahan was going to be the one she told.
    One good turn deserved another.

  CHAPTER  
22
    It was still light, the summer sun a good two hours from setting. Long trestle tables covered with red-and-white checkered cloths and festooned with clusters of red and