Free The Doctor's Rebel Knight by Melanie Milburne Page A

her emotions bubbling up inside her at the injustice of it all. ‘You weren’t there. You don’t know what it was like.’
    ‘You have to put it behind you, Fran,’ Caro insisted. ‘Mum and Dad put their lives on hold for you for three months while you got back on your feet. Now it’s your turn to do your bit to aid your recovery. You have to put in an effort. I know it’s hard, honey. But I’m here for you and the whole of Pelican Bay will support you if you would let them know about it, I just know they would.’
    Fran knew some of what her sister said was right. Her parents had lived every day of the month she had been in an induced coma not knowing whether their youngest daughter would ever breathe on her own again, let alone practise medicine again. They had helped her through the long, slow rehabilitation process, every day helping her get to and from physiotherapy sessions, tirelessly supporting her until she was able to regain her independence.
    It had been just as hard for Caro, living miles away with her husband, travelling back and forth during the first gruelling months of her pregnancy to visit her, doing what she could to help.
    ‘I know at some point I will have to move on,’ Fran said, letting her bag slip from her shoulder as she came over to her sister’s bed. ‘I know I have to put the past behind me. I just have to. But I’m scared.’ She buried her head into the soft pillow of her sister’s chest, sighing as Caro’s arms wrapped around her. ‘I’m so scared I won’t be able to be the same competent doctor I was before.’
    She lifted her head to meet her sister’s gaze. ‘I nearly lost that child, Caro. I didn’t save her, Jacob did. I totally froze and if it hadn’t been for Jacob taking over…‘ She shuddered and added in a hoarse whisper, ‘I’m just so scared it will happen again and there won’t be anyone around to help me.’
    Caro stroked Fran’s hair, cuddling her close with her other arm. ‘I know you are scared, sweetie, but one step at a time, OK?’
    It was a long while before Fran lifted her head again to look at her sister. ‘I’d better get going. Rufus has probably eaten his way through the sofa and the coffee tables by now.’
    Caro smiled. ‘I think he’s well on his way to falling in love with you.’
    Fran got off the bed and picked up her bag, digging for her keys inside it. ‘Yeah, well, a dog is a great companion and all that, but it would be nice if I could get a decent man to do the same.’
    ‘I wasn’t talking about Rufus.’
    Fran’s fingers closed around her keys, her chest feeling as if her hand was doing the very same thing to her heart. ‘You’re imagining things, Caro,’ she said, avoiding her sister’s all-seeing gaze. ‘The man is hardly civil to me. He thinks I’m a lazy layabout city chick with nothing better to do than to work on my tan between skiing holidays.’
    ‘He’s quite a catch, Fran,’ Caro said. ‘And much better looking than anyone you’ve dated in the past.’
    Fran tried to bring some of past boyfriends’ features to mind but it was a bit of a blur, although she didn’t think she should tell her sister that. It sounded so shallow of her to not even be able to picture even one of them mentally, especially as there had only been three and only one of them had been relatively serious.
    ‘Jacob Hawke’s OK, I guess,’ she said in an offhand tone. ‘But he rides a donor cycle which is a definite strike against him.’
    Caro’s forehead became a road map of fine lines. ‘A donor cycle? What the hell is a donor cycle?’
    ‘It’s what A and E doctors call motorbikes,’ Fran answered. ‘I always swore after I did a term in neurosurgery when I was a registrar that I would never get involved with a man who rode a motorbike. Head injuries are so common. It’s too dangerous.’
    ‘Maybe he likes to live a little dangerously,’ Caro said, her eyes glinting mischievously. ‘I think he looks amazingly