Excerpt:
Everything was ready at the Hill household. An extremely nervous bridegroom stood with his back to the picture window while the minister, Reverend Bruce of course, chatted idly with Hugh. Barnie, also quite nervous, kept looking at his pocket watch while his wife kept glancing from the mantel clock to the door. As it opened, very slowly and cautiously, every other eye in the room turned toward it expectantly. Instead of Rachel though, the maid, a most anxious look on her face, signalled to her mistress. Deborah walked to the door and pulled the frightened girl out of the room.
“What is it Meg, and where is Rachel?” The maid burst immediately into a torrent of weeping but the answer came from the would-be bridesmaid.
“She’s not here Mistress Hill. I went in her room to fetch her and found this.” She held out an envelope addressed simply. “Mother.”
The only person who would give any inkling of where Rachel Hill had gone was the station porter. “She got on the Glasgow express about an hour ago. She bought a ticket to Leeds.”
“Leeds!” The word echoed from three throats at once. Barnie continued with, “In the name of God, why Leeds?” No answer was forthcoming from either his wife or the reluctant, and now jilted bridegroom, as Barnie ranted on.

Synopsis
Too Many Farewells takes place in Scotland from 1909-1920. A mother deliberately abandons her eight-year-old son, Danny, where she knows he will be found by Reverend Bruce MacAlister and his wife, Kirsty who have just waved goodbye to his daughter and her family as they leave for Canada.
It is about the intrigue and relationships that develop and about the faith, hope and love that manages to overcome some devastating and life-endangering happenings which include many farewells, some happy and some extremely sad.