The Doctor's Rebel Knight by Melanie Milburne Page A

waves rolling in.’
    Fran was starting to see why he thought her refusal to perform as a part-time doctor in the Bay seemed so selfish and shallow. No wonder he was on her back all the time, trying to bully her into a job she felt unable to perform with any competency. She considered telling him but then swiftly changed her mind. He might feel compelled to take her on as some sort of project, just as some of her colleagues had tried to do.
    ‘I’m so sorry things didn’t work out for her or for you,’ she said, drawing in a scratchy sigh as she looked at the sparkling waters of the bay as it came into view.
    The waves were rolling in evenly now, the fringe of white sand against the turquoise water picture-postcard perfect.
    If only her life was as perfect, but, then, whose life ever was? Even the happiest and most successful people eventually had to face some sort of tragedy during the course of their lives. The Pelleris very nearly had, and the Brodericks, although saved from disaster this time, had not been so lucky in the past. And then there was Jacob and his mother…
    After a moment she turned back to look at him. ‘You said your father was killed. How did he die?’
    His face changed, his mouth becoming a flat line of tension, his jaw with its shadow of dark stubble locking like a padlock. ‘He was shot.’
    The three words hung in the air.
    Bang. Bang. Bang.
    Fran pressed her lips together as she let the silence ring with the echo of his gunfire statement.
    ‘Was it…?’ She searched for the right words, even though she knew deep down there were none. ‘Was it an accident?’
    The look he gave her was bitter, angry. ‘He was murdered,’ he said, ‘in cold blood.’
    She was barely conscious of the way her hands were twisting into knots. ‘What happened?’ she asked in one of those crime-show-character whispers that usually irritated her so much.
    ‘My father owned a service station—like Joe Pelleri’s here in the Bay,’ Jacob said. ‘It was a family affair. Mum did the bookwork; I worked there after school and Saturdays.’
    ‘You don’t have siblings?’ Fran asked.
    He shook his head. ‘Nope. There was just me. Mum had a bit of trouble in that department. She’d had about three, it might have even been four, miscarriages before me. Once I arrived safely she decided to quit while she was ahead.’
    Fran let the silence stretch, waiting for him to fill it.
    He took his time about it. He drove all the way to her sister’s house, parked in the drive and switched off the engine before he turned in his seat to look at her. ‘I’m probably keeping you from something important.’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘You’re not. Please…why don’t you come in and have a coffee or something? It’s been a long day and I think I owe you some sort of apology for how I bawled you out the other day. If only I had known…’
    ‘A coffee sounds great,’ he said, surprising her. Fran had somehow thought he would want to hightail it out of her presence, especially since he had let his guard down, which she suspected he rarely did.
    He suited his name. Those piercing blue intelligent eyes of his reminded her of a bird of prey, looking down as he rode the thermal currents that elevated him above the rest of the world, patiently assessing when it was time to strike.
    Fran was conscious of how dusty and dirty she was as she led him into the house, conscious too of how his presence behind her made her limp seem more of a disfigurement than normal. One of the first things she had noticed about him had been his long, strong legs, the way they’d strode across the ground with purpose, the way they’d hugged his powerful motorbike, the way he’d stood without a hint of a wobble in his stance.
    ‘Do you mind if I take a minute to freshen up?’ she asked, hoping she wasn’t blushing as much as she felt she was.
    ‘No problem,’ he said, bending down to scratch Rufus’s ears. He had bounded up to greet him with