Smith, Wilbur A.
Cairo
1887. A beautiful September day. Penrod Ballantyne and his fiancee
Amber Benbrook
stroll hand in hand. The future is theirs for the taking. But when Penrod's jealous former lover
Lady Agatha
plants doubt about his character
Amber leaves him and travels to the wilds of Abyssinia with her twin sister
Saffron
and her adventurer husband
Ryder Courtney. On a mission to establish a silver mine
they make the dangerous journey to the new capital of Addis Ababa
where they are welcomed by Menelik
the King of Kings. But Italy has designs on Abyssinia
and there are rumours of a plan to invade... Back in Cairo
a devastated Penrod seeks oblivion in the city's opium dens. When he is rescued by his old friend
Lorenzo De Fonseca
now in the Italian army
and offered the chance to assess the situation around the Abyssinian border
Penrod leaps at the chance of action. With storm clouds gathering
and on opposing sides of the invasion
can Penrod and Amber find their way back to one another - against all the odds?