Free The Doctor's Rebel Knight by Melanie Milburne

soon enough and I am definitely not it.’
    ‘But what if you are the right person, Fran?’
    Fran screwed up her mouth. ‘If I was, then the town—as they say in those old westerns—is not going to be big enough for both of us.’
    Caro’s brows lifted and her eyes twinkled. ‘So it’s pistols at dawn with Sergeant Hawke, is it?’
    Fran flicked her hair back behind her shoulders. ‘I can’t remember when I’ve met a more annoying man. He gets under my skin. I think he does it deliberately. And then I find out he’s just lost his mother after a long illness and I felt such a fool for shouting at him for cutting me off that day because apparently he’d just got the call and was rushing to get back, but how was I supposed to know that? He never said a word. In fact no one said a word. I would have apologised then and there but he never said a thing. Then he came around for coffee and just stood there, making me feel uncomfortable. I can’t seem to win with him. I don’t know why he’s so…so infuriating!’
    ‘Gosh, I’m sorry. I should have told you about his mother but the twins arriving early totally distracted me.’
    Fran gawped at her sister. ‘You knew?’
    Caro winced. ‘Sorry, but Beryl told me he wanted it kept pretty quiet. I think only she and Jim Broderick knew about it until a day or so ago.’
    Fran flicked her eyes upwards in frustration. ‘You could have told me. I made a complete and utter fool of myself.’
    ‘Ah-h…’ Caro sighed.
    Fran gave her sister a beady look. ‘What was that sigh for?’
    Caro’s expression was guileless. ‘What sigh?’
    ‘You know what sigh,’ Fran said, scowling. ‘That big sister-I-know-something-you-don’t-know sigh.’
    ‘What would it hurt to give Jacob’s suggestion a try?’ Caro asked.
    Fran narrowed her eyes. ‘How do you know about Sergeant Hawke’s suggestion?’
    Caro pointed to the two little blue teddy bears dressed in football jerseys propped up next to a bunch of flowers on her bedside table. ‘Because he ran into Nick downstairs about an hour before you did. I was in the nursery, feeding the bubs, so I didn’t actually speak to him personally. He was on his way to a court case in Sydney and dropped in on his way through. Nick told me Jacob thought you should put in some hours at the clinic. It sounds like a great idea, don’t you think?’
    Fran pursed her lips so tightly they felt like they were stitched in place.
    ‘It’s not like anyone’s asking you to do it full time,’ her sister went on. ‘Just a day or two a week for a couple of hours, four at the most, until a new locum is found.’
    Fran turned to look out of the window, her shoulders hunched, her arms crossed over her chest. ‘Did Nick tell him what happened?’ she asked when she could trust herself to speak.
    ‘Of course he didn’t!’ Caro sounded wounded. ‘A promise is a promise, even if both Nick and I think it’s a totally stupid one.’
    Fran rolled her eyes again. ‘It’s not stupid to me. I want to rebuild my life my way with no one looking at me with pity in their eyes.’
    ‘Jacob’s a cop, Frannie,’ Caro said. ‘He’s probably had to deal with the same stuff you did lots of times in his career. I bet he’s had lots of drug addicts throw punches and kicks at him, maybe even pull a knife on him or even worse—a gun. I reckon he’s the one person in town who would understand what you’ve been through.’
    Fran limped over to where she had placed her handbag earlier and hoisted it over her shoulder. ‘No one can do that, Carolyn,’ she said bitterly. ‘The day Scott Draper attacked me I changed and I can’t change back. No amount of understanding is going to do that.’
    ‘You’re letting him win, don’t you see that?’ Caro said. ‘You’re letting a drunken drug addict who didn’t even know what he was doing at the time take your life away from you.’
    ‘Don’t lecture me on what I should do,’ Fran said tightly, feeling