Doctor...to Duchess? Read Online Free PDF

then.”
    “Don’t worry,” Julia said grumpily. “I can buddy tape and splint them myself. I will need as much dexterity as possible and don’t want to be hassled with having my hand in plaster.”
    “Let me advise you, then,” Oliver retorted without so much as a hint of a smile, “you are going directly against doctor’s orders.”
    “That’s rich, considering it’s a
doctor
who put me in this predicament.” Julia only just stopped her voice from rising.
    “Are you going to realign them yourself? Perform the reduction? Give yourself the anesthetic jab?”
    She glanced at the X-ray. It was doable. Sort of. Not completely advisable, but doable. Particularly since it meant the Ogre of St. Bryar would leave her alone.
A distractingly attractive
ogre
—but an unwelcome beast nonetheless.
    “Yes, thanks. I’m sure you’ve got plenty else to do.”
    “Fair enough.” He turned to leave the X-ray room, his six-foot-something frame filling the doorway, before he stopped to speak over his shoulder, eyes fastidiously avoiding hers. “I’ll be back in the morning. You’ll need help.”
    “I’ll be just fine, thank you. No help necessary,” she called to his receding figure as she clapped her hand to the door frame.
Ouch!
    Julia forced herself to count to ten before stomping to the supplies cupboard where she crankily rooted around for a small splint and some medical tape. How dared he impose himself upon her and her clinic?
    Hmm... Well, technically it was
his
clinic on
his
property. But apart from that she was the one responsible for running the place and there was little chance she was going to let him elbow in and reimpose the fuddy-duddy ways that had this place stuck in the mud.
    Stuck in the mud
... Like she had been. With Oliver. Face-to-face, their breath virtually intermingling. Their lips had been so close to each other’s. And his eyes...just the most perfect, mossy green. Breathtaking. Her heart had thumped so wildly in response she’d been amazed he hadn’t felt it. Perhaps he had.
    Which made him all the more unpleasant for being such a curmudgeon! Julia sucked in a deep breath. She’d show him how to run a clinic—a clinic that kept a community afloat. Just because he swanned around the world with his flak jacket, looking gorgeous and aiding the masses, didn’t mean helping the people of this beautiful village was a waste of time. Not one iota. Her chosen role was every bit as important as helping in war zones!
    She rested her forehead on one of the shelves and forced her whirling thoughts to slow to a less heady speed. Was it Oliver she was battling or her guilt over Matt?
    Matt. Soldier. Husband. The loyal man she had been best friends with since primary school. She’d learned to live with the niggling frustration that had cropped up every time he’d broken it to her she’d have to change her plans to kick-start her medical career
again
because they were moving. There was always “a bigger problem out there in the world” that needed fixing. How could you argue with that? War-torn nation versus small-town hemorrhoids?
    You had to laugh.
    Didn’t you?
    Not if, the last time you’d talked, you’d bickered about that very topic. Told him you had had it with packing boxes and following in his wake yet again as you sidelined your career for the umpteenth time. She’d wanted to be a family GP for so long and now, here she was, living the dream. If only it hadn’t come about via her worst nightmare.
    She swallowed hard. She’d been through this. Matt would’ve been happy for her. Happy to see her doing what she loved.
    She resumed her search for supplies, doing her best to squelch down her feelings. She couldn’t stop a grin from forming when she found some tape that had been donated by a big-city sports team. The company making the tape had spelled the name of the team incorrectly and it reeled an endless stream of Burnside
Tootball
Club.
    Oops.
    “Nice to see a smile on those