Kate Winslow

Kate Winslow is a fictional character in the fantasy series The Hollow Kingdom. She acts as the protagonist of the first novel and appears as a secondary character in Close Kin and In the Coils of the Snake. Beginning as a proper English gentlewoman, Kate becomes the wife of the goblin King, Marak Sixfinger and learns that she is part elf. She is the mother of Marak Catspaw and the older sister of Emily Winslow.

Character background
After the death of her father, Kate Winslow and her younger sister, Emily, move to the Hollow Hill estate with their new guardian. One night, they run into what appears to be a group of gypsys, who offer them a ride home. Kate gets a strange feeling from the strangers and refuses to let them put her on their horse. The leader of the group, Marak, guides them home while teasing Kate. After Emily goes into the house, he reveals himself to Kate who is terrified by his appearance. He later visits her in her bedroom and explains that he is the goblin King and intends to marry her. She tries to thwart his plans, but ends up appearing mentally unstable. Her guardian brings in a psychiatrist to see if he can have her committed. Before Kate sees the doctor, Marak tries to kidnap her and she fights him off, infuriating him into destroying the room she is in. While with the doctor, Kate claims not to know what her guardian is talking about and denies ever claiming goblins were after her.

Her guardian later comes to her and says Emily has been kidnapped and asks her to describe the goblins to them so they can attempt to get her back. Instead, Kate goes to the goblin King and offers her hand in marriage in exchange for her sister's freedom. Marak reveals that he doesn't have Emily, but he agrees to free her from her captors. They discover that their guardian took her and was holding her as a way to force Kate to admit that she believes in goblins so he can have her committed. After which, he planned to get rid of Emily so he could take their inheritence. Marak punishes him takes Kate and Emily back to his kingdom. He marries Kate and places a protective charm, callled the King's Wife Charm or Charm, in the form of a snake on her that protects her from danger. They also discover that she is part elf during the wedding ceremony. Over time, the sisters adjust to their new lives in the goblin kingdom.

A human sorcerer kidnaps a goblin guard and uses his blood to summon the spirits of other goblins. One by one, goblins colapse as their spirits are taken by the sorcerer. Marak tries to let Kate out of the kingdom for her own safety, but his soul is stolen before he is able to. Kate decides she has to leave the kingdom to find the sorcerer and stop him. With the help of her magic snake, Charm, she goes to Liverpool and finds the sorcerer. He attempts to kill her using one of the goblin spirits he stole, but none of them will attack her because she is the goblin King's Wife. The sorcerer eventually gets Marak's soul to come do it. Kate tries to reach Marak to get him to stop. Once she mentions that she is carrying their child, he is able to fight off the sorcerer's control. Charm, meanwhile, bites and paralyzes the sorcerer, intending to leave him for the King's judgement. Kate kills him instead, inforcing her own judgement upon him. She then frees the goblin souls and other captives the sorcerer controlled, inluding animals and a baby girl. She takes the baby home with her and names her Matilda, nicknamed Til.

Back in the goblin kingdom, Kate gives birth to her son, Catspaw.

In Close Kin, Kate begins to learn elf magic. She discovers that the magic is in military and she accidentally tries to kill Marak with it, causing him to refuse to teach her offensive magic. She meets full elves in Sable and Irina, two elf brides brought to the goblin kingdom. She and Sable become best friends.

During In the Coils of the Snake, Marak dies and Kate loses Charm as a result. She also meets the new elf King, Nir. During their encounter, neither know that he is the elf King, so when he touches her, he unknowlingly puts the Call of the King on her. This causes her to become emotionally distraught as she relives the loses in her life. Catspaw accuses Nir of attacking his mother, which increases the animosity between them.

Physical appearance
Kate is described as having long, curly blonde hair and dark blue eyes. Once she becomes the goblin King's Wife, she has scars on both of her hands from the ceremony which represent the future of herself and her husband, Marak. Kate also has a golden snake she wears during her entire marriage for protection, named Charm. While sleeping, he appears to be paint on her, but when she is in danger, he becomes solid and attacks whoever is after her.