Child protagonist hurt twice without a choice (9)
I believe the answer is:
recherche
'a choice' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'child protagonist hurt twice without' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'child' could be 'ch' (abbreviation for child) and 'ch' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for recherche that I've seen before include "Little-known" , "Rare, exotic, obscure" , "Rare or exotic (French)" , "choice" , "Rare or far-fetched, like her creche" .)