A Duel with Destiny

By Barbara Cartland

Book Overview

When the handsome Marquis of Swayne is injured in a nasty carriage accident, his servants carry him to the house of the local physician, where he is nursed back to health by Doctor Winsford's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553109758
• ISBN13: 9780553109757
• Release Date: June 1977
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.

Customer Reviews

One of the first BC novels I read...

I must have been 12 years old when my aunt gave me her most precious legacy: her lot of Barbara Cartland novels. 15 years later I'm still obsessed with Barbara Cartland and the butterflies I felt when I read this book. Synopsis: "Rowena, daughter of the village doctor, finds herself nursing an injured Marquis after a carriage accident. As she is the oldest of two sisters and one brother, all of them of a rather strange beauty considering their humble origin, she must take her dead mom's place as head of the family and she feels responsible of all her siblings' future. If not the prettiest of the doctor's daughters, Rowena has a unique beauty, more spiritual and soft. When the Marquis is good enough to leave the doctor's house, he confesses his love to her, and promises all what she always dreamed. All, but one thing: a wedding ring." The story is different of the regular romantic novel by Madame Cartland. The Marquis not only refused to marry a humble young woman with no aristocrat background, but makes very clear there is nothing wrong in spoiling an innocent and untouched girl if they love each other. He has a fixation with his family tree, the one that has proved his blood is bluer than the one running thru the veins of his contemporaries. There was no question about his not marrying Rowena. I loved the arguments, the disputes, and the efforts of the Marquis to make her consent in becoming his mistress. It all was only matter of time... at least, that was what he always thought... Here is my favorite line: "How can it be wrong when we love each other? I am willing to devote my whole life to you. Why should you ask for more?" "Yes," said Rowena with a touch of anger in her voice, "how dare I? Well, my Lord, I do dare. I dare to tell you that the love you offer is not good enough for me!"