A Duel With Destiny Read online

  There was champagne to fill the crystal glasses engraved with the Marquis’s monogram and, when the servants left the room after the dessert had been served, he raised his glass.

  “I want to drink a toast to my wife,” he said in his deep voice, “and I want you to join me in one to our future happiness.”

  Rowena picked up her glass.

  “I hope I – shall make you – happy.”

  There was just a little doubt behind the words.

  She was thinking how different this evening might have been if it had happened a week ago before she went to London to confront the Marquis at Carlton House and, as she had hoped, defeat him.

  As if perceptively he knew what was in her mind, the Marquis put down his glass and pushed back his chair.

  “I have something to show you.”

  “You don’t wish me to leave you to your port?” Rowena asked.

  He shook his head.

  “I have no wish for you to leave me now or ever.”

  She did not answer him but rose from her chair and he opened the door for her to leave the dining room.

  She would have turned right, which she knew was the direction of the salon, but to her surprise the Marquis guided her towards the left and they walked along a wide corridor, moving, Rowena realised, away from the centre of the house towards the left wing.

  There were still more family portraits hanging above carved tables, French commodes and ancient chests and occasionally a flag that a Swayne must have captured in battle or a sword that Rowena knew would have a history.

  At last, after they had walked for some way, the Marquis stopped to open a door.

  Rowena entered a room and thought at first glance that it was an office. Then she saw that there were two men in it, who rose to their feet as they entered.

  Hanging on the walls were many framed manuscripts like those the Marquis had brought to show Hermione of his Family Tree.

  “Good evening, Mr. Smythson,” the Marquis said to the first man standing near the door.

  “Good evening, my Lord.”

  “I want you to show her Ladyship how far you have advanced with the task I set you.”

  “It will be a pleasure!” Mr. Smythson replied. “And as it happens, my Lord, it has been far easier than I anticipated.”

  “Mr. Smythson has been researching into the Family Tree of the Winsfords,” the Marquis explained.

  Rowena said in some surprise,

  “I am not surprised that it did not take very long!”

  “I have traced the Winsfords of Huntingdon,” Mr. Smythson said eagerly, “where his Lordship told me that your Ladyship’s family lived back to 1587!”

  Rowena stared at him in astonishment.

  Then she looked down at the rough design he was working on and saw in fact that from her father at the foot of it the Winsfords went back one by one until they reached Richard Winsford at the date that Mr. Smythson had given her.

  “I had no idea that this was possible!” she exclaimed.

  “I thought it would surprise you,” the Marquis said, “and Mr. Smythson has not finished yet. There is a great deal more research he can do.”

  “Yes indeed, my Lord,” Mr. Smythson agreed. “I have several men making investigations amongst the libraries, the County records and other sources that should provide us with new and, I think, extremely interesting material.”

  He paused to say to Rowena,

  “I am afraid, your Ladyship, I cannot trace the maiden name of your mother.”

  Rowena glanced at the Marquis.

  “I will let you have all their particulars tomorrow, Mr. Smythson,” the Marquis replied.

  As he spoke, he drew Rowena to the other end of the room.

  “This is Mr. Gaynor,” he said, “who has been working with me for many years. The way he illustrates and illuminates is in the tradition of the ancient manuscripts I have showed you.”

  “Thank you, my Lord,” Mr. Gaynor smiled.

  “This is what Mr. Gaynor is working on now,” the Marquis said. “My Family Tree. As it is a very long one, it has to be spread out.”

  On a long oak table in front of the window Rowena saw a parchment that must have been nearly six feet in length.

  She realised that it was beautifully illuminated with miniatures and historiated initials exactly like the Medieval ones.

  “It starts, my Lady,” Mr. Gaynor explained, “with Comte Etienne de Swayne, whose grandson was in the Army of William the Conqueror when he left Normandy for these shores.”

  He pointed to the name as he spoke at the top of the tree. Then he moved slowly, passing from the Norman Swaynes to the Medieval ones, from the Tudors to the Hanoverians and finally Rowena, following his pointing finger, found the Marquis’s name at the very bottom of the parchment.

  She saw his full name as she had heard it last in the Church as they were married – “Tarquin Alexander, fifth Marquis of Swayne”.

  And there beside it was – her own name!

  “Rowena Mary Winsford.”

  “I want you to tell her Ladyship the date when I instructed you, Mr. Gaynor, to add her name to this tree,” the Marquis said. “I am sure you can remember it exactly.”

  “Of course, my Lord,” Mr. Gaynor replied. “It was three days ago on July 30th, the night before you left for London.”

  Rowena was very still.

  “You are quite certain that you remember my coming to this room on that day to give you that instruction?” the Marquis asked.

  “Quite certain, my Lord!” Mr. Gaynor answered in a puzzled tone. “It’s not a date I am likely to forget, considering how delighted we were that your Lordship was to be married.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Gaynor.”

  The Marquis took Rowena by the arm and drew her from the room.

  As they walked silently down the long corridor, she found that she was holding her breath.

  He had intended to marry her before he knew about her grandfather!

  He had changed his mind and yet he had not told her, but had gone away leaving her thinking that she was not good enough for him and that blood was more important than love.

  They entered the salon and the Marquis closed the door behind him.

  Then, as Rowena walked to the fireplace, he went to the window to stand, as he had done the night they had kissed, with his back towards her, gazing out into the garden.

  She felt as if the silence vibrated between them.

  Then at last, when she felt as if no words would come to her lips, the Marquis said,

  “I have won, but after all it’s a hollow victory.”

  Rowena stiffened.

  It flashed through her mind that what he was saying was that now she was his wife he was regretting it and no longer wanted her.

  “When I kissed you,” he went on, “I told you that I felt as if I had found a new unlisted flower on top of a mountain. What we felt for each other was so perfect, so incredible that now I am afraid.”

  “W-why?”

  Rowena’s voice sounded strange even to herself.

  “Because through my own stupidity I have trampled on that flower and may have destroyed it.”

  There was silence and then Rowena asked tremulously,

  “W-why did you – not tell me?”

  “There did not seem to be an opportunity when you were so glad to have found Mark and I knew that your thoughts were only of him,” the Marquis answered. “Also I knew that I had to go to London as I could not refuse to be in attendance on the Prince Regent when he had expressly asked for me.”

  He paused a moment before he continued,

  “But I meant to come back to you today and ask you formally and with due ceremony if you would honour me by becoming my wife.”

  “I had no – idea that you had – changed your mind,” Rowena murmured.

  “It’s difficult to explain what I felt when I told you that I could not offer you marriage,” the Marquis said. “I suppose the truth is th
at I had never known love – real love before. It took me unawares and, although it was the most perfect thing that has ever happened to me, I could not for the moment reconcile it with the conventions that had been such a strong part of my upbringing, my innermost thoughts and my whole life.”

  “And yet – you changed – your mind.”

  “It was Mark who did that.”

  “Mark?”

  “When I realised how anxious you were about him on the Newmarket Road and when you thought that we had gone the wrong way, I suddenly knew that I wanted my wife to feel like that if she had lost our own child, your son and mine, Rowena.”

  He paused.

  “I had been so precise and perhaps, if you like, so obstinate in planning my future that I had not considered that children need love, a love that is a part of their family life, a love that their mother and their father have for each other.”

  The Marquis gave a deep sigh.

  “I think in that moment I realised why you are all so beautiful, why you and your whole family have such fine and noble characters and why Mark was so brave. He has not only a horsemanship that I admire but an independence that I would like my own son to have.”

  There was a note in the Marquis’s eyes that made the tears prick Rowena’s.

  He was in fact expressing in words what she had felt herself that as a family they had always been encompassed with love because their father and mother had loved each other so deeply.

  “I came back here after I had left you,” the Marquis continued, “and I went straight to Mr. Gaynor and told him to add your name to the Family Tree. The only thing that was missing was the date of our marriage and that I was determined should take place as soon as possible after I returned from London.”

  “If only – you could have – told me,” Rowena murmured.

  She thought how miserable she had been, how deeply she had resented him and how with the help of her grandfather she had tried to cast him out of her life.

  “I realised at Carlton House that I had made a mess of everything,” the Marquis said in a low voice, “and because I knew exactly what you were thinking and feeling, my darling, as I always have, I was desperately frightened that I might lose you completely. That was why I came back here very early this morning from London and arranged our Wedding.”

  Rowena did not speak and after a moment he added with a different note in his voice,

  “I was afraid, terribly afraid, that your grandfather might persuade you to go to Scotland with him or that you would really manage somehow, my precious, to keep me out of your home.”

  “It would have been – difficult to do – that.”

  “How could I be certain? How could I be sure of anything except that I wanted you? As I want you now.”

  Again there was silence until the Marquis asked,

  “Have I lost your love?”

  Because she was so deeply attuned to everything he said Rowena knew that there was an agony behind the words.

  He was feeling, she thought, as she had felt when she learnt that his love for her was not the love that she had sought and longed for.

  Because she loved him so overwhelmingly she could not bear him to be unhappy and apprehensive.

  Yet for a moment she felt too shy to move, too shy to speak.

  Then she moved until when she spoke again she was just behind him.

  But he was still gazing into the garden.

  “If – you kissed me,” she whispered in a voice he could only just hear, “perhaps we would – know if our love is – still there and still – as wonderful as it was – before.”

  He turned round and she saw the light in his eyes as if it came from a flame in his heart.

  “Do you mean it?” he asked. “Oh, my darling! Do you really mean it?”

  Her eyes looked up into his and there was no need to answer.

  Her lips were soft and waiting for him.

  She was not certain if he pulled her to him or if she moved first, but his arms went round her to hold her very close.

  In the golden light from the setting sun he looked down into her face for a long moment, then his mouth came down on hers.

  Just for one flashing second she was afraid that the magic and enchantment had gone.

  Then even more rapturous, more wonderful, more glorious than it had been before, there was the warm wave moving up through her throat to her lips.

  A streak of lightning flashed through her body that was half pain, half glory and a part of the Divine.

  It was everything she had longed for and thought that she had lost for ever.

  In a way it was even more marvellous because she had passed through so much suffering, as indeed he had.

  “My little love! My beautiful one!” the Marquis cried. “You are everything that is perfect, everything I have longed for and everything I so nearly lost!”

  His voice was unsteady and Rowena’s as she answered him was tremulous with the emotions he had aroused in her.

  “I – love you!” she whispered. “I love you – more than I have – ever loved you before!”

  “Do you mean that? You forgive me?”

  “There is – nothing to forgive. Mama said that, when I found the man I truly – loved, it would be destiny and there was nothing I could do about it.”

  The Marquis’s arms tightened around her and he drew her closer.

  “It was Fate that brought us to each other, but we duelled with destiny and that was unforgivable. I might have lost you!”

  Rowena heard again the pain in his voice.

  “We have – found each other – now.”

  “I shall thank God for it all my life,” the Marquis said. “You are so precious, my adorable little wife, that I will never take risks again for fear I might lose you.”

  “You will – never do – that,” Rowena answered him.

  She knew now that she could never really have resisted him for long.

  She was a part of him as she had been since the first moment he kissed her, in fact before that, when she had first seen him lying unconscious on a gate outside the front door.

  There were so many things she wanted to say to him, so many things they could talk over together and there was so much she had to learn.

  But all she wanted now was to be safe in his arms and feel that incredible rapture when his lips touched hers.

  Because she needed him so desperately she stood on tiptoe so that her mouth was nearer to his.

  “I – love – you!” she whispered.

  “Say it again,” he ordered, “I want to be certain it is the truth.”

  “I – love you.”

  “For ever?”

  “For – ever.”

  “And you trust me?”

  “You know – I do.”

  “You are mine – mine and I will hold you and keep you with me by day and night! I could never lose you again.”

  “You will – not do – that!”

  “You are sure?”

  “Completely – and utterly – sure.”

  Again he looked down at her as if he must impress her beauty forever on his mind.

  Then his lips were on hers holding her totally captive, making her, as he had intended to do, his own.

  While she knew that he would always be her Master and she would always be subservient to him, she gloried in his strength, his determination and even his obstinacy.

  Whatever he was like, he was hers and she was his.

  It was destiny and they neither of them had any defence against it.

  OTHER BOOKS IN THIS SERIES

  The Barbara Cartland Eternal Collection is the unique opportunity to collect as ebooks all five hundred of the timeless beautiful romantic novels written by the world’s most celebrated and enduring romantic author.

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  The Eternal Collection, classic pure romance available worldwide for all time .

  Elizabethan Lover

  The Little Pretender

  A Ghost in Monte Carlo

  A Duel of Hearts

  The Saint and the Sinner

  The Penniless Peer

  The Proud Princess

  The Dare-Devil Duke

  Diona and a Dalmatian

  A Shaft of Sunlight

  Lies for Love

  Love and Lucia

  Love and the Loathsome Leopard

  Beauty or Brains

  The Temptation of Torilla

  The Goddess and the Gaiety Girl

  Fragrant Flower

  Look Listen and Love

  The Duke and the Preacher’s Daughter

  A Kiss for the King

  The Mysterious Maid-servant

  Lucky Logan Finds Love

  The Wings of Ecstacy

  Mission to Monte Carlo

  Revenge of the Heart

  The Unbreakable Spell

  Never Laugh at Love

  Bride to a Brigand

  Lucifer and the Angel

  Journey to a Star

  Solita and the Spies

  The Chieftain Without a Heart

  No Escape from Love

  Dollars for the duke

  Pure and Untouched

  Secrets

  Fire in the Blood

  Love, Lies and Marriage

  The Ghost who Fell in Love

  Hungry for Love

  The Wild Cry of Love

  The Blue-eyed Witch

  The Punishment of a Vixen

  The Secret of the Glen

  Bride to the King

  For All Eternity

  King in Love

  A Marriage made in Heaven

  Who can deny Love?

  Riding to the Moon

  Wish for Love

  Dancing on a Rainbow

  Gypsy Magic

  Love in the Clouds

  Count the Stars

  White Lilac

  Too Precious to Lose

  The Devil Defeated

  An Angel Runs Away

  The Duchess Disappeared

  The Pretty Horse-breakers

  The Prisoner of Love

  Ola and the Sea Wolf

  The Castle made for Love

  A Heart is Stolen