The Doctor's Proposal Read Online Free PDF

as he tested each vertebra in turn, lightly pressing, examining, running his fingers under Susie’s sweater, not wanting to undress her and make her colder but finding he could examine by touch almost as easily as he could if she had been undressed. They had to be identical twins, he decided as he worked. One twin battered and pregnant. One twin immobilised by terror.
    But Susie’s spine was fine, he decided. Or as fine as it could be at this stage of recovery. As far as he could see, there was no additional damage.
    There was still a complication. ‘How pregnant are you?’
    â€˜Eight months,’ she told him. ‘Four weeks to go.’
    â€˜There’s already been a false labour,’ Kirsty muttered.
    â€˜So you decide to go travelling,’ he said dryly. ‘Very wise.’
    â€˜Mind your own business,’ Kirsty snapped.
    â€˜Be nice,’ Susie told her twin, and Kirsty looked surprised, as if she wasn’t accustomed to her sister speaking for herself.
    â€˜You’ve flown from the US to Australia at eight months pregnant?’ he asked Susie, but Susie didn’t answer.
    Kirsty waited for a moment to see if her twin would answer, but when she didn’t, she spoke again. ‘We came a month ago. We thought it might help Susie if she could find Rory’s Uncle Angus and talk to him about Rory. But Susie went into prem. labour and it’s taken a month before we’ve been game enough to leave Sydney. Enough of the inquisition. Could we get Susie warm, do you think?’
    Kirsty’s anger and distress were palpable. She’d have liked to direct them straight at him, Jake thought, but he could see the warring emotions on her face and knew that the anger and the distress were self-directed. She was blaming herself.
    But he had to concentrate on Susie. Triage decreed that psychological distress came a poor second to possible spine damage. He was helping Susie into a sitting position, and now he smiled at her, encouraging.
    â€˜Slow. I don’t want any sudden movements.’
    â€˜This doctor’s almost as bossy as you are,’ Susie told her sister. ‘Nice.’ She turned back to Jake. ‘But be bossy with Kirsty,’ she told him. ‘She needs bossiness more than me.’
    â€˜I’ll deal with your sister after you,’ Jake told her, and glanced between the two of them. There was more going on here than a healing back and pregnancy. Why was Kirsty so terrified?
    Susie was so thin.
    â€˜Is anything else hurting?’
    â€˜My pride,’ Susie told him, and some of her bravado was fading. ‘I have mud everywhere.’
    â€˜Can we take her inside?’ Kirsty demanded in a voice full of strain, and Jake glanced at her again. OK. Enough of the mud.
    He stooped and lifted Susie up into his arms. Despite her pregnancy, she was so light she alarmed him even more.
    Kirsty gave a sigh of relief and started tugging the wheelchair forward, but instead of placing Susie into it he turned toward the gate.
    â€˜Hey,’ Kirsty said. ‘Put her in here.’
    â€˜The chair’s wet,’ he said reasonably. ‘And we still have to get past the truck.’
    â€˜You can’t carry her.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜You should say Unhand my sister , sir ,’ Susie told her sister, and Kirsty’s eyes widened. She seemed totally unaccustomed to her sister even speaking, much less making a joke.
    â€˜My stupidity with the car blocked your path,’ he told Kirsty, sending her a silent message of reassurance with his eyes. Relax, he was telling her. We need to get your sister warm. The least I can do is provide alternative transport.
    And it seemed that finally she agreed with him.
    â€˜Well, if you think you can bear the weight…’
    She was trying to smile, but he could still see the fear.
    â€˜We Aussie doctors are very strong,’ he told her, striving to match her lightness, and