Thursday, August 27, 2009

A Duel with Destiny


A Duel with Destiny is #64 in the Bantam series and was published in June 1977. Rowena lives in a little village with her Doctor father when the Marquis of Swayne is injured in an accident and taken to their house. While recuperating, he realizes that they are gentry, but poor and tries to help them financially, but Rowena is very proud and he falls in love with her, but isn't quite willing to offer marriage. Rowena can't prevent him from helping her family, but she does have one hand to play!

Francis Marshall paints a beautiful picture for the cover of this Cartland novel! Our heroine is beautiful in an aqua regency dress while our hero is dashing with his orders and formal dress! I like how you can tell that it's an outside gathering with the Chinese lanterns and the crowd behind the couple.

We don't realize how important birth was to the gentry and aristocracy. While men may have mistresses that were low born, they rarely married anyone not of their class and birth. Many marriages were arranged, but marrying for love was becoming popular in regency times.

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