A Duel With Destiny

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 beautiful eldest daughter, Rowena.
On his way to recovery the Marquis is surprised to find that the family is unable to provide the fine food and drink he is used to and discovers that the household and its children are considerably impoverished by the doctor's over-generosity to his poorer patients and anyone else he feels sorry for. And immediately the Marquis sets about remedying the situation.
Almost at first sight the Marquis falls in love with Rowena, and she with him, and it seems that all her dreams of love and happiness have come true until she is horrified and disillusioned to find that the Marquis's excessive obsession with his family name and social status means that he will not marry her.
Instead he means to keep Rowena in a luxurious house in London as his mistress.
With her dreams in shreds Rowena's love turns to hate and she is determined to beat the man she loves in a battle of will and wits and with a little assistance from her family.
But she cannot avoid her destiny. And nor can the Marquis.

Barbara Cartland was the world's most prolific novelist who wrote an amazing 723 books in her lifetime, of which no less than 644 were romantic novels with worldwide sales of over 1 billion copies and her books were translated into 36 different languages.
As well as romantic novels, she wrote historical biographies, 6 autobiographies, theatrical plays and books of advice on life, love, vitamins and cookery.
She wrote her first book at the age of 21 and it was called Jigsaw. It became an immediate bestseller and sold 100,000 copies in hardback in England and all over Europe in translation.
Between the ages of 77 and 97 she increased her output and wrote an incredible 400 romances as the demand for her romances was so strong all over the world.
She wrote her last book at the age of 97 and it was entitled perhaps prophetically The Way to Heaven.
Her books have always been immensely popular in the United States where in 1976 her current books were at numbers 1 & 2 in the B. Dalton bestsellers list, a feat never achieved before or since by any author.
Barbara Cartland became a legend in her own lifetime and will be best remembered for her wonderful romantic novels so loved by her millions of readers throughout the world, who have always collected her books to read again and again, especially when they feel miserable or depressed.
Her books will always be treasured for their moral message, her pure and innocent heroines, her handsome and dashing heroes, her blissful happy endings and above all for her belief that the power of love is more important than anything else in everyone's life.