Barbara Dunkin

## Early life

Barbara was born in a little town in the Midwest. She is the eldest of two girls and when her younger sister was born, their father, unable to bear the burden of family life, abandoned his family. Barbara was forced to leave school early in favor of work. In spite of her poor education, Barbara often curled up by the fire and found solace and the knowledge she lacked in various books that she had found or stolen over the years.

Barbara worked her fingers to the bone for many years, doing odd jobs and picking the occasional pocket to help support her mother and sister. She even taught herself to ride and shoot a gun so she could hunt dinner for her family. With her and her mother working, Barbara's younger sister was able to attend school and eventually move out to seek higher education. When her sister moved out, Barbara left home to make a life of her own in a growing town in the west.

## Life in the west

For a couple of years, Barbara lived a quiet life until the day a man in the market picked her pocket. His name was Benjamin Harris, a charming young man covered in freckles with fiery red hair. She did not turn him in to the police, and instead helped him pick pockets using the skills she had perfected as a child. The two became friends and would frequently meet to commit petty crimes such a pickpocketing and grave robbing.

They both quickly fell in love and petty crimes became robbery, smuggling, and illegal gambling. Both of them were cutthroat when it came to business and soft when it came to each other. Eventually on a hot night in August, the two were married.

In their 4th year of marriage, Barbara was arrested in the farmer's market and taken in for questioning. A frustrated sheriff tortured Barbara for information on their criminal activities. One of their associates saw Barbara taken at the market and passed the information on to Benji.

Benji burst through the doors of the law office and found the Sheriff standing over his wife with a knife carving up her face. In a fit of rage, Benji shot and killed the Sheriff before he was taken down by two deputies. The deputies wrote in their report that Barbara's injuries were caused by her husband and that she was there to escape domestic violence.

Barbara tried for weeks to convince people that she was being tortured. The deputies spread rumors about domestic violence and made sure that no one would believe her. Eventually, Benji was sentenced to be hanged.

At the hanging, Benji's family and Barbara attempted to save save. The lawmen held them back far from the platform and Barbara watched the man she believed to be her husband be hanged. The man later turned out to a homeless look-alike taken from the streets, beaten until his face was too messed up to recognize.

Barbara believing her husband dead, hatched plans to discretely kill the deputies that covered up her torture and had her husband killed. She shot one of them and planted the gun on the local general store owner and poisoned the sugar the other put in his tea, implicating his wife. The individuals she framed both took part in spreading the domestic violence rumors that got her husband killed.

After the death of her husband and the murders of the deputies, Barbara couldn't stand living in the home that she had shared with Benji for so many years. She decided to burn it down and flee to live with her sister again.

## Life after Love

Barbara ended up moving to a county with her sister. She continued her criminal life robbing graves, banks, and art galleries with a group called the Toppy Reds. She was in relationships with various men including a lawman and a criminal businessman. Nothing ever felt quite right or ever worked out. She eventually entered a relationship with the leader of the Toppy Reds, Damian Rayson. Robbing and loyalty were the foundation of their relationship and at times he reminded her of Benji. Slowly, things began to feel sour as Damian often disappeared for long periods of time, leaving Barbara to look after his saloon and to sleep in an empty bed.

In Damian's absence, a lawman, Red Y'ango began spending more time with Barbara. The two of them got very close as they worked together to find a close friend of theirs that went missing. She began having feelings that she never thought she'd feel after her husband died. Barbara was in constant conflict with her loyalty and fondness for Damian and her adoration of Red.

Eventually, she told Damian about her feelings causing him to go into a rage and shoot Red in the back when he refused to duel him. He went into hiding, and Red eventually fell into a coma from his injuries, when trying to stop a notorious criminal from hurting Barbara. She stayed with him by his bedside for days, reading to him and taking care of him until he woke.

Shortly after Red returned to work, a man with red hair and freckles showed up at the police department demanding his wife. It was Barbara's husband Benji. He was never hanged, instead he spent years in prison being tortured by the friends and family of the sheriff he had murdered. Benji eventually kidnapped his wife leading both Red and Damian on a chase to find her.

They were eventually invited to a vow renewal for Benji and Barbara where Benji was shot and killed. Feeling that Red could protect Barbara better than he could, Damian left. Red stayed and cared for Barbara picking up the pieces of her traumatized and abandoned heart. Even with their conflicting jobs both went home every night to the comfort of the other.

## Ruthless County

After everything that happened with her husband, Barbara had difficulties remaining in their home. Plagued with panic attacks, nightmares, and uncontrollable shaking Barbara could hardly cope. She often woke Red in the middle of the night screaming in her sleep, eventually calming after the hold of gentle arms and soft words of comfort. Barbara came to Ruthless county with Red to escape the pain they'd endured. Barbara is unsure of what the future will bring for her, but she knows that she will have Red by her side to face any challenges that greet her.