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.