Kate Hurley, wife to Jack Hurley, is like a shorter, rounder version of her younger sister Maggie Yendale. She more or less raised her siblings after their mother died of pouring fever some years after Robin's birth.

Her similarity to that woman in combination with the way their father later favoured Maggie, whose mystery child appeared significantly after their dad's escape from the law, is likely the source of the dark current of rumour that claims she was 'damaged goods' when Jack married her. Kate weathers these rumours like the others about her family, endures and saves bit by bit, pays her sister's fines for non-attendance at church or work as need be and raises her bastard nephew with the same care she shows her brother.

So far she has not been able to produce a child of her own, and should her husband press to formally adopt the baby she carries about, cleans regular and chews food for, she'll be put in a very difficult spot indeed. She loves her disaster of a giant little sister very much.