She frowned. ‘I met John Cunningham back home at some function or other. He was an Englishman from the School of Oriental Studies in London, lecturing at Harvard for a year. We got married.’
Kane raised his eyebrows. ‘Just like that?’
She nodded. ‘He was tall and distinguished and very English. I’d never met anything quite like him before.’
‘And when did the trouble start?’
She smiled slightly. ‘You’re very perceptive, Captain Kane.’ For a few moments she stared down into her glass. ‘To be perfectly honest, almost straight away. I soon discovered that I’d married a man of strong principles, who believed in standing on his own two feet.’
‘That sounds reasonable enough.’
She shook her head and sighed. ‘Not to my father. He wanted him to join the firm, and John wouldn’t hear of it.’
Kane grinned. ‘Well, bully for John. What happened after that?’
She leaned back in her chair. ‘We lived in London. John had a research job at the University. Of course it didn’t pay very much, but my father had given me a generous allowance.’
‘To enable you to live in the style to which you were accustomed?’ he said, and there was something suspiciously close to amusement in his voice.
She flushed slightly. ‘That was the general idea.’
‘And your husband didn’t like it?’
She got to her feet, walked to the parapet and looked out across the harbour. ‘No, he didn’t like it one little bit.’ Her voice was flat and colourless, and when she turned to face him, he realized she was very near to tears. ‘He accepted the arrangement because he loved me.’
She came back to the table and sank down into her chair. Kane gently placed his hand on hers. ‘Would you care for another drink?’ She shook her head slightly and he shrugged and leaned back in his chair.
She pushed a tendril of hair back into place with one hand in a quick, graceful gesture and continued, ‘You see, my father was a self-made man. He had to fight every inch of the way and he told John pretty plainly that he didn’t think much of him.’
‘And how did that affect your husband?’
She shrugged. ‘I insisted on living in the way I’d been used to, and it took my own money to do it. John began to feel inadequate. Gradually he withdrew into himself. He spent more and more time at the University on his research. I think, in some crazy kind of way, he hoped he might make a name for himself.’
Kane sighed. ‘That makes sense. And then he walked out on you, I suppose?’
She nodded. ‘He didn’t come home from the University one night. He left a letter for me in his office. He told me not to worry. Something very important had come up and he had to go away for a few weeks.’
‘It still doesn’t explain why you’re looking for him here in Bahrein.’
‘I’m coming to that,’ she said. ‘I received a package four days ago from the British Consul in Aden. It contained some documents and a letter from John. In it he said that he was leaving on the coastal steamer for Bahrein. From here he intended to go up-country to Shabwa. He’d left the package with the Consul with strict instructions to forward it to me if he hadn’t claimed it himself within two months.’
Kane stared at her in complete surprise. ‘But Shabwa’s a bad-security area,’ he said. ‘Right on the edge of the Empty Quarter – one of the greatest deserts on the face of the earth. What on earth was he doing up there?’
For a moment she hesitated, and then said slowly, ‘Have you ever heard of Asthar, Captain Kane?’
He frowned slightly. ‘An ancient Arabian goddess – the equivalent of Venus. She was worshipped in the time of the Queen of Sheba.’
She nodded. ‘That’s right. The Queen of Sheba was also high priestess of the cult.’ There was a moment of stillness between them before she continued in a calm voice, ‘My husband had reason to believe that out there in the Empty Quarter are the ruins of the great temple Sheba built in honour of the goddess Asthar.’