Disclaimer: I own nothing. Well, there's Margaret. And Robert (Margaret's brother). But that's it.

A/N: This story has randomly come out of completion because I felt like being random. This chapter was surprisingly easy to write - don't know whether that signifies a good chapter or a terrible one. I'm not sure whether there will be anything after this. Probably not, unless someone says they want more - and specifies what they want from it. I've marked it incomplete, just in case. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 3: And After

Satine and Margaret made their way to Harold's office. It was all very well for Satine to decide Margaret should work there, but Harold was the one who would actually give her a job. Or so he thought anyway. However official Harold's decision would be, Satine had given him no choice in hiring Christian, and intended to give him none in hiring Christian's cousin.

She wasn't really worried though, because they needed good actors. Business had been going badly since Christian had left, and she felt it was partially her fault. Depressed by his absence, she hadn't been able to summon the proper feeling into her voice – that wouldn't be a problem anymore, of course – and they'd had to give up on the theatre for awhile.

Perhaps now, with a writer and new actress, they could return to the stage. She smiled at the thought. Other than Christian, acting was really the only thing she'd missed over the past months.

Toulouse, it seemed, had taken her up on the suggestion to talk to Harold; he and Christian were both in the office as they arrived. Harold seemed uncertain about the situation. "Diamond!" he cried, slightly frantic, as she entered. It was his current pet name for her. "He's back."

"I know." Smiling – it felt so good to smile again! - Satine went to stand by Christian, wrapping one arm around him tightly. She was not going to let him leave again. "And this is Margaret, his cousin."

Harold looked at Margaret, then at Christian. "Really? You're related to her?" Christian nodded. "Interesting. Pleased to meet you, Margaret."

Margaret smile, a little awkwardly, and dipped a small curtsy. "I presume that Toulouse has mentioned that he wants to start the theatre again?" Satine asked.

"Oh, yes, yes." Harold said. "We will have to do that." he seemed resigned.

Satine had been going to say that Margaret wanted a job, but it almost sounded as though he didn't actually want to run a theatre again. "Of course we will! Why shouldn't we?"

"It's just very sudden, my jewel." He said quickly. "The girls are probably out of practice with the dances and the difference of being on stage to being in a dance hall and … and most of them aren't really actors anyway, just dancers - "

"Well," Satine broke in, confused by his lack of confidence. If they had been allowed to perform Christian's play as it was meant to be performed, it would've been amazing – and now, without the Duke, they could. What exactly was the problem? "Well, I know someone who would be a good actor."

"Who?"

"Margaret."

"What?" Surprisingly, it was Christian who had exclaimed, not Harold. Harold, it seemed, was too shocked to speak.

Margaret smiled. "I don't want to go home, Chris. What is there for me, there? Boring picnics and endless cups of tea? Proper society and both my father and yours always telling me why I don't fit into it? Perhaps an arranged marriage with someone worse than you." She shook her head firmly. "I can't go back to that." Evidently, Margaret had taken what Satine had said to heart. Of course, there was no reason for her not to.

Harold studied Margaret carefully for a few seconds, then addressed Satine. "And you say she would be a good actress."

"Very."

"How do you know?"

Margaret sent her a warning glance, so Satine decided not to explain fully. "Oh, I just know. She's … very like me, I think, in many respects." And very different in others, but she didn't say that.

Unconvinced, Harold continued to examined Margaret. "Well, you're very pretty." he said finally. "You can try for awhile, I suppose. I need to prepare things for the return to the stage. Toulouse, if you would remain..."

The other three understood the dismissal and left the room. "You want to be an actress?" Christian asked Margaret as soon as the door closed.

"Perhaps I do. Truthfully, the idea hadn't entered my head before Satine suggested it." She told him. "However, I have been needing a change from the tiresome routine of upper class London, so this might be exactly what I've been looking for." Suddenly, she turned to Satine. "You will mention to Zidler at some point that I do only want to be an actress, not … "

Satine nodded quickly, having forgotten that Harold might take her request for a job the wrong way. "I will. It shouldn't be a problem. Part of the reason he wanted to convert the Moulin Rouge into a theatre was to also make it into a legitimate business. The Duke was to be my final client." She grimaced, thinking of the trouble her almost-final-client had caused.

They had been walking without direction, but Satine realized they had arrived at the auditorium. The floor had long been cleared of the chairs that had filled it for Spectacular Spectacular and the red curtain hadn't been lifted for much too long, but it was still an auditorium.

In the middle of what they still used as a dance floor, Nini Legs-in-the-Air and the Argentinian were dancing. They had danced more and more often recently – Satine wondered vaguely whether they might be falling in love. She quickly dismissed the notion. There would be nothing wrong with it if so, though Harold might disagree, but Nini was a very proper prostitute. Satine couldn't really see her falling for anyone, even her dance partner of five years.

As they entered the large room, Nini spotted them and stopped dancing, murmuring something to the Argentinian. He looked over at them once, nodded to Christian, then turned away. Unlike Toulouse, the Argentinian had never really been comfortable with her relationship with Christian. She thought it was probably because he was worried it would ruin the show – and as her co-star, a failed performance would hurt him as much as her. He also did not have love for Christian to make it worth the cost, as she did.

Nini, on the other hand, made her way over to them, grinning. "Shakespeare! You're back!" She said, sounding genuinely pleased to see him. "Will Harold reopen the theatre then? I've been dying to get back on-stage." And that would be why.

"Yes he will." Satine told her. "I didn't realize you liked acting so much, Nini." She heard Margaret give a slight start, and shot her a confused glance. Margaret was looking at Nini with interest. Satine wondered briefly if she knew the name.

Nini only laughed. "Oh, but I do – opening night of Spectacular Spectacular was amazing. Not on stage so much, but the night after was extremely fun." She said with relish. "Have you told him? About the night after, and why the Duke left?"

Satine hesitated. "No..." It hadn't seemed important, really, and Christian hadn't asked.

"Can I?" She asked eagerly.

"I suppose."

"Well," Nini began dramatically, turning to Christian. "After you left, Satine finished the play as she was supposed to from the beginning. You know, exchanging wedding vows with the Duke – I mean the Maharaja, of course - " Satine glared at her, sure the slip up was on purpose. "And so on.

"When the play was over, she returned to her dressing rooms, to prepare to meet the real Duke. I followed her there and found her in such a state that I realized she simply couldn't go to the Duke like that.

"And so, feeling that true love shouldn't be treated like this," Unconsciously, she stroked the diamond necklace that she was wearing, "I offered to go in her place. I put on her dress – and her hair, her wig that is, what she wore for the show – and fulfilled her promise the Duke. He never knew the difference." She grinned again. "Surprising, that, as the wig very nearly came off several times. But then, he's always been a moron, so maybe not so surprising."

Satine stopped herself from groaning. "Go back to the reason you did all this? It was to save me from it for the sake of love, or something?"

"Of course it was!" She managed to sound offended. "Why else?" Rolling her eyes, Satine suddenly yanked the necklace off her neck. "Hey! Give it back!" Nini cried, snatching for her precious diamond.

"I won't – not until you tell the truth."

Nini ground her teeth and looked back at Christian. "Oh, all right, I didn't do it for the sake of your love. Don't even believe in love, really. She begged me to take her place, and paid me well to do it. With the necklace that the Duke had only just given her." She held out her hand for said necklace. "Now give it back!" Satine, who had never really had any intention of keeping it – it was a gift from the Duke, after all - gave it back.

~break~

Margaret had decided she was going to like it at the Moulin Rouge. She'd only been there a week, but already it felt more like home than England. The girls were more accepting of her than she'd expected, though they did laugh at her for her modesty – that's what they called it, modesty, when they learned she wouldn't be a prostitute. They didn't laugh very hard though; Satine, after all, was also 'modest' in this respect, and she was the star.

Acting was as much fun as Satine had described – and it came astonishingly easily to Margaret. She thought it was because she'd spent so much time pretending to be someone she wasn't at all of her father's social events.

However, she had now been gone from home a week, after telling her brother Robert that she would be home in a few days at most. He was likely starting to worry about her, which she would not allow. Robert was the only one, other than Christian, who had always accepted her for who she was.

It was time to inform her family of her decision to remain in Paris. Slowly, began to compose a letter.

My Dear Brother,

I am sorry I did not write to you sooner. I have been very busy this past week. You see, my business in Paris turned out not to be quite what I thought it would be.

I am sure you are aware that after our cousin, Christian, returned from this city, he was not himself. The reason, which he confided in me the week before I informed you that I was leaving, was that he had fallen in love in Paris – and that the woman, Satine, had first convinced him she returned the feeling and then broken his heart.

I came to learn why she would do this. As it turned out, what she did was done to save Christian's life. You see, she had another suitor who was insanely jealous of her love for Christian and this led him to attempt to kill him. Satine knew there would be no other way to convince him to leave, so she pretended that she'd been playing with him all along.

Christian – whom you informed of my whereabouts, I believe – arrived in Paris soon after I did. Satine's other suitor was gone, so she was able to explain the situation to us and confessed her love for our cousin. They are quite happy now, and you may tell Uncle that he will not be returning home again in the near future.

I, too, have decided to remain in Paris, which is why I am telling you all this in a letter rather than in person. I have tired of life in London recently and I was offered a job at the theatre where Satine and Christian work – she as an actress and he as a playwright. I have accepted and am now content with my situation. I do not intend on returning soon either.

If you wish to visit me, the theatre is called the Moulin Rouge. It is in the village of Montmartre – and please, do not tell Mother and Father this. I'm sure Mother would faint from shock and Father would come to get me. The people here are not anything like what they have heard from Uncle (I am, in fact, now rather doubtful that he has ever visited the village himself) and I assure you I have not and will not join the women here in their indecency.

Love,

Margaret

Margaret folded the letter and addressed it. Robert would not betray her trust by telling their parents when she had expressly asked him not to. It was always possible that her father would intercept the letter before it got to Robert – he had been known to do such things – but it was beyond her power to stop him, so she decided to take the chance.

It was always possible that Robert himself might wish to 'save' her from Montmartre, but she would much rather her brother be the one to convince her to return than her father. Robert was willing to listen to reason; their father was not.

As she was leaving to mail her letter, Margaret nearly ran into Satine. "What's that?" She asked, curious.

"A letter. It's for my brother. I told him I'd be home days ago, so I'm afraid he might be worrying about me." Margaret told her, smiling. Over the past week, her hope that they would become friends was well on its way to being realized. "I was just going to send it."

"Well, come back soon." said Satine. "Harold wants to perform Come What May in a week and we have a rehearsal this afternoon. Don't be late."

Margaret agreed and hurried on her way, still smiling. Come What May was the renamed Spectacular Spectacular. A truly spectacular play – though they all agreed that was hardly a fitting title – that Christian's descriptions had completely failed to capture. As Satine had the only main female part in the play, Margaret was in the chorus, but she didn't mind. Besides, Harold seemed impressed with her performance – she'd heard him telling Christian that there needed to be a bigger part for her in the next play.

Yes, Margaret really was going to like it here, whatever her family thought about it.

A/N: Yeah, I'm really not sure if this is any good. At all. Or whether writing the whole letter was necessary. Oh well.

Review anyway? Oh, and in your review, would you mind answering a question? Would you be at all interested in reading a Christian/Nini romance? You see, I have an idea. Actually I have half a story written - it doesn't have anything to do with this story, by the way. Nini is be a completely different character than she is here, a hopefully much more likable character, eventually.

Please review!