Emily Rowley Laura Fraser "...Emily Rowley, the daughter of Sir Marmaduke, the governor..." "... Lady Rowley had been right when she said that her daughter Emily also liked to have her own way..." "... Emily Rowley, when she was brought home from the Mandarin Islands to be the wife of Louis Trevelyan, was a very handsome young woman, tall, with a bust rather full for her age, with dark eyes that looked to be dark because her eye-brows and eye-lashes were nearly black, but which were in truth so varying in colour that you could not tell their hue. Her brown hair was very dark and very soft; and the tint of her complexion was brown also, though the colour of her cheeks was often so bright as to induce her enemies to say falsely of her that she painted them. And she was very strong, as are some girls who come from the tropics, and whom a tropical has suited. She could sit on her horse the whole day long, and would never be weary with dancing at the Government House balls..." A no-nonsense Scot, Laura Fraser didn't find it difficult to play an independent spirited young woman with a mind of her own. At the time of the casting for the role of Emily, Laura was living in New York with her Irish actor boyfriend. She financed her own journey to the audition for the role. "There is a little bit of me in Emily, as I can also be quite reckless but I'm not as stubborn as she is. I understand her: she doesn't compromise, which is not very smart in life but she won't lie. I've been a jealous person myself," explains Fraser. "I've been distrustful, convinced that somebody's having an affair with somebody else. If you believe it in your head, everything looks like a lie. When you're looking for it, you always see it -- even the change of expression in their face." Fraser knew she wanted to act by the age of 10, having been inspired by her father, owner of a building company, who wrote shows for her school. She has been a professional actress since she was 18 and spent a year at the Royal Scottish Academy for Music and Drama. Fraser appeared in the television film Iron Jawed Angels with Hillary Swank and in Casanova, scheduled for air by Granada in 2005.