Again.

Which meant she'd experienced some of the same pain before the Sanditon if preventing further heartbreak and pain had been her calling to become a healer. It does not make it easier. It never will. The words on his lips died as he was struck by the amount of emotion that had flooded Miss Skovgaard's expression. She already knew this, and yet she still continued on as if she carried the weight of the world across her shoulders. Faustus nodded silently as he regarded her, quite touched at the obvious amount of empathy the healer had for her patients.

He supposed that it was the nature of a healer or any service profession. Every case that came close to mirroring his own life circumstances was harder to distance himself from, and he felt a personal duty to see those through until the end. Whether this visit had been fueled by duty or true concern for Miss Skovgaard was a different matter entirely. Regarding her with a tender look, Faustus responded softly, "When one deals with the possibility of death, we cannot place the blame solely on ourselves, Miss Skovgaard." He thought of Jane and the devastation that had reigned him in the weeks following her death. "We may be extraordinarily gifted beings, but we are still mortal."

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