Excerpt from The Hidden Road

 Author P.A.McCREE
Prologue
THE HIDDEN ROAD
The old road should not have been there.
At least, that was what the map insisted.
George Ellison folded the atlas across the steering wheel for the third time and rubbed tired eyes that had spent too many hours following white lines through unfamiliar countryside.
The lane before him curved gently between ancient hedgerows.
No sign marked its entrance.
No village appeared beyond it.
Only a weathered milestone stood half-hidden amongst cow parsley.
Its face had worn smooth long ago.
He glanced back at the map.
Nothing.
Just an ordinary county road ending two miles behind him.
His satnav had surrendered twenty minutes earlier.
Signal lost.
It had not recovered.
George sighed.
He had promised Ellen he would be home before dark.
Forty-three years of marriage had taught him that promises mattered, even when no one else would know they had been broken.
He started the engine again.
The lane seemed no different from a hundred others he had driven during his years delivering agricultural machinery across the country.
Narrow.
Quiet.
Forgotten.
The sort of road that only local people ever used.
He eased forward.
The hedgerows closed gently around him.
The world grew strangely still.
Not silent.
Simply... quieter.
The engine sounded softer.
The tyres no longer hissed across the tarmac.
Even the birdsong seemed to drift from somewhere much farther away.
A mile later he rounded a bend and saw an old café standing alone beside the road.
Its painted sign read simply:
THE DRIVER'S REST

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