She was born in 1778 to a fisherman and his quadroon wife in the tropical capital Martinique, in South America. She and her fraternal twin sister, Angelique, learned voodoo practices from their mother at a young age and became schooled in the art when they were in their teens. When Angelique turned eighteen, she went into service to a young heiress, Josette du Pres, and traveled with her to America. Cassandra, however, remained in Martinique, caring for her father, who was a slave to his bottle and developed liver disease.
Cassandra became known as a medicine woman in Martinique. Unlike her sister, Cassandra had inherited her mother's long, curly black hair, which allowed her to blend with Martinique villagers. She was well-trusted in her advice to young women concerning potions, charms and cures, and many girls called her the "love doctor" for her abilities to fashion charms and spells to aid young girls in pursuing their affections. However, one of Cassandra's spells went awry, according to the villagers.
A young girl used Cassandra's charm to beguile a young fisherman she fancied. However she incurred not only his love, but that of his brother. The brothers shared the cake that Cassandra had baked for the girl's purposes, and they both fell deeply in love with the girl. They fought for her affections and in a blinding rage, one killed the other. Though the matter was no fault of Cassandra's, the religious minority in the village felt they had all the evidence they needed to put a stop to the witch's deeds. She was convicted publicly of witchcraft, despite her services to the village, and sentenced to death by drowning.
The village priests bound and gagged Cassandra, then tied heavy stones to her arms and legs. In a ceremony of great fervor, they dropped her from the docks into the marine waters that bordered the city. Cassandra lost consciousness when she was dragged beneath the current, but she was not killed.
When Cassandra revived, she found herself in the care of a family in England. She learned that one week had passed since her conviction as a witch. She could not understand how she had not died from the priests' machinations. The event had, for certain, incurred in her a deep wrath for religious hypocrites. She severed herself from her religious ties entirely, and left the family's charity to become a teacher at a girl's school. She did not understand how she had survived her punishment by drowning until one night, she had a dream in which the devil came to her and spoke with her at length.
Satan told her that she was now under his care. He had preserved her life, and she was now indebted to him. She would come someday beneath the care of a watcher, Nicholas Blair, a warlock who would ensure she performed the devil's services to satisfaction. Cassandra knew she was capable of carrying out what Satan wished, but she was not certain she wanted to do so. Still, she knew that she would die quickly if she refused his demands.
Cassandra became an instrument of the devil, and lived her life much as before. In England, it was necessary to be more watchful about her practices, since witchcraft was harshly forbidden by religious leaders. In Martinique, voodoo had been accepted as a part of village life, though not discussed. Here the practice was not accepted at all, except by the very desperate.
Falling to her favorites, Cassandra began the work of crafting love charms again, this time for her young students. She became a popular teacher, and her favorite students swore one another secrecy to protect Cassandra's craft. She was relatively happy at the girl's school, making friends as she never had before. She also learned the mannerisms of a lady, which she had lacked while living with her father in Martinique. She became used to proper behavior, proper clothing, and good manners.
Tensions began to run high at the girls' school when a fellow teacher found a small poppet that Cassandra had made, a doll that one of the girl's had left carelessly for view in her room. Suspicions in the school turned to Cassandra, who was an outsider, and she was forced to flee. Too, Satan warned her in a dream that her life would be in danger if she stayed in England any longer.
Cassandra decided to go to Collinsport, Maine, and seek her fortune there. Her sister Angelique lived there now, and though tensions between them had always been great, she wanted to assure Angelique that she was still alive and that the priests in Martinique had not succeeded in executing her, as her father surely must have thought.
But when Cassandra arrived in Collinsport, she discovered a host of supernatural surprises. Her sister had embroiled herself in a love scandal. This did not surprise Cassandra, as Angelique had always been the passionate one of them, but Angelique had mixed magic with love and created disaster. Cassandra did not associate with the Collins family, but instead became a governess to a nearby home, and saw Angelique only on occasion. Angelique's magic had resulted in the deaths of a wealthy business magnate Jeremiah Collins and his young wife, and Barnabas Collins, Angelique's former lover, had soon after died of a plague, but more likely grief over his lost love, Josette, who had betrayed him for Jeremiah.
After Barnabas' death, Angelique left Collinsport, but Cassandra remained. She had discovered, remarkably, that she had the ability to retain her age. She was thirty-tree at the time of discovery that her face and figure were as flawless as they had been at the age of eighteen. In order to keep her immortality a secret, Cassandra was forced to migrate, never staying in any place longer than ten years. She invented identities and histories for herself as she went, and became an adept liar and storyteller. She stayed for a while in west Texas, learning Spanish and educating herself in the ways of the Aztec Indians, whose concepts of magic and its practices were similar to her own. In her studies, Cassandra picked up new abilities. She was content to stay in Texas until Satan ordered her to return to Collinsport to carry out a task. Cassandra was discontent to abandon her research, but knew that she must obey Satan's orders.
She returned to Collinsport and it was there that she met Nicholas Blair, with whom she took a brother-sister living arrangement. Again her path crossed with that of the Collins family. Satan mandated that Cassandra put herself into the good graces of the family and marry the heir, Roger Collins, who already had a child from a previous wife. Cassandra met Roger and did not love him, but carried out Satan's tasks all the same.
She succeeded in winning Roger's attention, and later his love, and was his new bride in short order. But she found her life at Collinwood constraining and miserable. She was tired of being the devil's plaything and yearned for a life of her own. After an explosive argument with Roger, Cassandra left for Boston, and he went with his son David to France.
When Cassandra returns to Collinwood, she finds herself with a host of problems: accusations of theft and worse, Roger's bothersome and controlling sister, Elizabeth, and more greatly, her watcher Nicholas Blair, under whose control she bridles. She wonders if her magic can hold up to the challenge, and intends to make a try for it, living for herself for once.
All material written by Amanda Story, copyrighted 2004. None may be reproduced without my permission.
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