Faith looked like a woman on fire. These were clearly tragic circumstances.
"Mason," she said, pausing for dramatic effect, "has run off with Mandi."
"What?" Charity looked at Ross.
He shrugged.
"It's true." Faith put a hand to her forehead, tragic- heroine-style. "He's taken her. Lock, stock and barrel. They're gone."
"Oh." Charity couldn't work up a whole lot of interest over this turn of events. "That's too bad."
"Too bad? Is that all you can say?" Faith threw herself down on Charity's bed. "She's so young and innocent. I was training her in the ways of a chaste life full of natural fibers and New Age thinking. We'd planned a visit to a trance channeler in Colorado together. She was my protegee. And now she's gone." She pounded little fists into the covers. "How did this happen? How could people like us have such a degenerate for a brother? Where did we go wrong?"
Charity bit her lip and looked at Ross.
His grin an swered hers. "This has all the makings of a long, long night," he muttered to her. "I think I'll go out and get more ice cream."
She nodded. "Get me a bowl, too," she murmured as he left her. "I'm going to need it for energy." As he closed the bedroom door, she turned to her sister. "Okay, Faith," she said with a sigh, sinking onto the bed beside her, "tell me all about it."