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.

"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." ( )

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! ( )