ikissdhimbck: (Cowgirl Rancher Stablehand Silhouette)
Katherine "Kissin' Kate" Barlow ([personal profile] ikissdhimbck) wrote in [community profile] milliways_bar2013-03-16 08:15 pm

EP: Kate Barlow | Outside, Stables / Main Bar

It's been a long time since Beaut's had the pleasure of startling the bar with her presence. The front door admits the five-foot cowgirl and her mount, obviously on their way someplace else, depositing them smack dab in the middle of the bar.

Beaut snorts.

"Oh, come now. S'good t'be back, ain't it?"

Kate wins an ear twitch for her trouble. With a chuckle, she sets about navigating the tables and chairs — and waitrats, we mustn't forget them. She'll get Beaut resettled out in the stables and check on the stock, and once she's done there she'll find a calendar. Once she knows the date and has stopped to look for messages in the stables, at the board, or with the Bar, she'll settle in for a while.

Then again, it's such a beautiful evening out. Maybe she'll take advantage of the lingering light and give Beaut a proper ride up the mountain path.


[ooc: I'm so sorry for inundating the bar! I did try to space everything out. ~sheepish~ Post open indefinitely; catch Kate anywhere you like, she'll be making her rounds and she's in a great humor.]
fiery_ring: (looking down)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-03-17 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
"Um..."

Kate has that kind of effect you can't lie to.

"Well, I think you gathered from the scene Fern made at the ceremony that there was some doubt over the paternity of her little boy. And... he almost certainly is Will's. We did some blood group tests. Will's had something of a drink problem and... well let's just say when he's drunk he has difficulty keeping his trousers on."

She goes red as she says this.

"Anyway, we were concerned about Little William's safety and I managed to keep custody of him for a while as a circus ward, but we lost him back to her when she appealed. She hasn't let us have access to him since.

Will's doing better though. He's been going to Alcoholics Anonymous and he's been sober four months now."
fiery_ring: (looking down)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-03-17 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
"The last one was in November." Carlotta says, hugging back tight. "Remembrance Day. He disappeared for two days. The one before was the night before our vows renewal. Says he doesn't remember either of them.

Oh, and he's on a suspended sentence because we got into a fight with some court officials at the custody hearing after Fern announced in front of the whole court that she'd had Will followed by a private detective."
fiery_ring: (looking down)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-03-20 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Carlotta throws up her hands.

"Lord knows, although in fairness he punched the guard because they'd rugby tackled me for leaping over the counter to shout at Fern, and I had a mighty bump on my head when I came to.

As for William, I think on one hand he feels horribly guilty for letting someone like Fern get him drunk and out of control, and on the other he feels he ought to do right by the child. I'm the one that's fought for custody more than him, because I think Fern is awfully dangerous and doesn't take good care of Little William.

He has been making changes since he got sober, I mean he's working on the business again while I'm running the circus, and he and his friends built us a log cabin to live in in the winter so we don't have to go between the caravan and his parents' house all the time. But that's more getting back to how he was before the war than changing.

He wasn't always like this." she sighs. "He was the one who was desperate to have kids in the first place. I love Mol to bits and I don't regret her, but I would much rather have waited a couple more years... but at the time she came around we weren't sure if we were even going to survive and didn't want to miss a possibly final chance to be together.

The war did something to his mind. He had to do a lot of things to innocent people on the other side that he doesn't like to talk about but haunt him. That's why I forgave him. Not for cheating, but for drinking so much he ended up cheating. But there has to be a line, so I told him if he cheats again I'm taking Molly and we're not coming back.

And if he thinks we're bringing any more children into this mess he can forget it. We barely managed to feed ourselves and Molly last winter because he'd drank half the cash box money, and he had to sell one of the colts to get us through."

She goes a little red, after pouring all this out, feeling she's probably aired her laundry a little too much. But she's had it coming for months. All those warning signs she'd got from Will that things were going downhill, and tried to convey to the... older grown ups in her life. Too embarrassed to say it bluntly for once, too subtle for Teja or Demeter to pick up on when they were fighting, and now him being in the gooey mind of love. Her father and grandmother never around.
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-03-21 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Will's been seeing a psychiatrist at home." Carlotta says. "He told Will that he needed to 'get a grip' or he'd be locked up, so now Will's pretty much too afraid to tell him anything. He's getting better though. He's not performing in the circus or going in the ring, which seemed to be triggering him; he's working at the stables most of the week and joining us from Sunday to Tuesday. I offered to stay settled with him, but he wouldn't hear of it, said I'd got my dream of being a ringmaster and he'd never want to take that away.

He took me dancing tonight, even got a smile out of him."

She hugs back. In her heart, she still feels like a child, trying to deal with adult stuff. But in her early twenties, she knows society expects her to be a grown up, a mum, taking care of things on her own.

Small wry smile. "I haven't lost my temper that badly in a long time. You know when I was a teenager I shook my fist in my French teacher's face once and swore at her in Spanish... which unfortunately she understood. I slapped a few people back then too. Nothing so bad recently. I had just been told he'd cheated before our vows though, so I had fair provocation."
fiery_ring: (looking up)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-03-25 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
"I met Dr Crowe once, he seemed kind." Carlotta nods. "I'm not sure we can afford any more doctor's fees though."

She nods again. "He's borrowed from his father to buy an unbroken one to train up for profit. He's been breaking horses since he was twelve, but this one has been with an inexperienced handler so has probably picked up some bad habits."
fiery_ring: (looking up)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-03-30 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
Gentle smile.

"That's awfully sweet of you, but Will's parents don't know about the bar, and the tax man might have a few words to say about our books if horses start appearing. At the moment, it's giving him something to focus on. Part of the problem when he was on tour with me was that he wasn't performing - he'd come so late in the seasons - and didn't have enough to do but go down to the pub."

Looking up at Kate again she adds. "But we'd really appreciate your help with getting a doctor to help him. I'll pay you back, I promise. I... I have to warn you he's awfully cagey about it all. All I even know is that he was forced to do very bad things in the war or he'd have been shot for disobeying."
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-03 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Carlotta hugs back.

She needs hugs. And a few fewer things to worry about.

"Is it foolish to keep taking a man back who has cheated?" she asks quietly.
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-06 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
Carlotta squeezes her a litte harder.

"A man who thinks you're not right doesn't know what he's missing." she says.

A sigh. "I do. I think he loves me so much that he's terrified I'll leave if he tells me the extent of his problems."
fiery_ring: (looking down)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-06 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"I promised God to stay with him forever." Carlotta says. "Now if he breaks that first, that's one thing, and if our daughter is at risk, that's another. But most people would look down on me greatly for deserting a man broken by the war because I was less in love. Even in the circus."
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-06 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Carlotta thinks about this for a moment.

"If someone gets married in a non-religious ceremony is there a way they can get out of it?"
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-07 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
Carlotta nods. So if Teja marries Pyrrha, and she does something untoward to him, it sounds like he may not be able to get out of it.

But that's another one of her worries to deal with.

"As I travel part of the week without Will, people I meet assume he is on business at home, which is true. But that wouldn't hold for long."

Sigh. "It is not at that stage yet. I should worry about problems as they come."
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-07 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Small smirk.

"A few minutes ago, I thought you might be going to beat him up." she teases.

She gives Kate an appreciative look, though.
fiery_ring: (Default)

[personal profile] fiery_ring 2013-04-09 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Carlotta laughs.

"I don't think we need to resort to physical violence just yet, but thank you."

[ooc: Fade here? Thanks for the thread :)]