I first noticed her while tending the tombs and gravestones in the churchyard. I had of course seen her before, many times in these last few months, but this was the first time I had stopped to consider the woman. Her eyes were a wide, deep hazel narrowing to bright pupils, and these shone through the slit in her headscarf. The rest of her body was shrouded in the black cloak of one observing hijab.
She was sitting on a bench in the shade, as she always did, overlooking this lush, overgrown burial place, tucked behind one of London's oldest churches. She had been watching me for ten minutes as I picked carefully at the lichen on an 18th century tombstone. I was unsure as to whether the look was studied or faraway.
As I sat next to her on the bench I introduced myself, "My name is Seamus, I am the caretaker of All Saints. I hope you don't mind if I join you for a minute to rest up?"
"No, I don't mind. Please do," she said.
Sitting adjacent and this close I could see the curvature of her breasts, hugged tightly by the cloak, and the spread of her ample haunches. A woman shrouded, yet revealed. As respectful as I was to church visitors, I couldn't help but linger in the look and I felt a slight swell in my jeans, my heart skipping a beat at this glimpse of the unknown, the unknowable.
"This is very beautiful place, very restful," I said, as if to break my own spell. "I have lived and worked here for ten years and wouldn't change it for the world. There is something magical about the building and its grounds. I find it... sensual, ancient."
Wood pigeons fluttered from the tree in front of us and flew away into the air, drawing both our gazes to the heavens.
She turned to face me, the fine shape of her jaw and cheekbones impressed upon her veil, her lips speaking as if through a dark gauze, yet my attention fixed upon her sparkling eyes.
"Would you have the time to show me around, perhaps?" She asked.
There was a lot to see here. A Norman church with a glorious vaulted nave, faded medieval frescoes and stately Georgian memorials, this was a museum marking the evolution of ecclesiastical building and decorations. The early Tudor stonework filled the air with a humid, spectral mist, the organ recital ringing bright, piped echoes off the walls and stained glasswork.
She told me she had never set foot in a Christian church before. She was Muslim, proud of and diligent in her faith, yet she too had sensed the sacred vapour of the grounds. As she told me this we were in the crypt chapel, nearing the end of our tour, and we stood before the remains of a Saxon wall. I noticed her breathing had become heavy; her parted lips panting against the veil cloth, her bosom rising and falling as she turned to face me. In the dense air she was perspiring slightly, causing her cloak to wrap more snugly about her.
"I have thought deeply about faith and the spiritual path all my adult life'" she said. Her eyes had become vivid, almost demanding. "I am devoted to hijab, it is my choice. From Islam I draw strength and find happiness." Her nipples now began to stiffen and forcefully protrude through her cloak, the thin fabric outlining her shape boldly in this musty underworld.
"Faith through free will must be a wonderful thing." I said, really just to respond to the enigmatic woman. I was uncertain as to where this was leading us.
"Yes, it is," she said, "and free will enables me to explore and experience without fear of losing faith." At this she fell silent standing before me, her hands held low fidgeting and hesitant, her eyes fixed upon mine. She exuded overpowering desire, the surge of adrenalin before the great leap.
I had become speechless. Accompanying this mystery woman on her first footings had me in the grips of abandon. I unlocked the little gate into the oldest corner of the crypt, the site of a prehistoric well, now a tiny chapel. Here was a little altar draped with a thick, crimson cloth, which I lay folded against the near wall. And then I turned to reach for her, stooping towards those veiled lips, yet she held me back.
She had me sit on the altar cloth while, standing before me in the dim space, she slowly lifted her cloak. From the floor, I watched as her sandaled feet appeared, dark skin above pale soles and toes, and a golden ankle bracelet strung with bells. Her skin shone like stars in a new moon night, recalling rich teak as she exposed her smooth calves, knees and thighs rounding and filling to strong trunks. She turned around to lift her cloak above the hips, revealing to me a perfectly global arse, and as she bent down from the waist I noted the contrast of her tan anal button nestled in the shadows.