She pursed her lips, returned to the desk, smoothed out another sheet of paper, and dipped her pen in ink. “Please endeavor to concentrate on the task at hand. Now then, the list is only the first step. What follows is on your shoulders. You’ve already made one poor choice. I think you’re going to have to try something completely different this time. You’ll have to court your intended. Become acquainted with her first.”

He leaned against the mantelpiece. “Seems to me I don’t have to do anything but choose the lady with the most blameless reputation and the largest fortune and convince her to marry me, even though I have a terrible reputation.”

“You’ll have to find whether you suit each other before proposing. You’ve seen how an engagement can go wrong in the blink of an eye. You must become acquainted with the prospects before proposing to one of them. Have conversations with them. Learn about their childhoods, and their goals, and interests. Ensure that they’re compatible with your own, and your family’s goals.”

“Once I make a show of reforming, the ladies will be courting me . . . you’ll see. I’ll be able to sit back and take my pick.”

“You should find a good woman to marry, instead of negotiating for the one with the heaviest purse. And that requires courtship. You can’t skip the conversations . . . or the small gestures that show you’ve truly listened to her. Heard her.”

“One kiss and any lady will swoon into my arms.”

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s true.”

“Because your kisses are some manner of magic elixir, I suppose?”

“I know my way around a kiss. When properly applied, a kiss is so much more than a kiss. It’s a promise, a prelude, and a tantalizing taste of fuller pleasures to come.”

“That’s seduction, not courtship.”

“Pretty poems, custom-made bookshelves, acts of chivalry . . . do you honestly think any of those actions were taken in the absence of kisses? They weren’t. The kissing came first, then the bookshelves. I’ll guarantee it.”

Viola’s cheeks flushed. She’d heard her friends describe their kisses for years now. Truth be told, she’d been more than a little envious of their amorous explorations. “You may be right.”

“If there’s one thing I know, it’s kissing. A man who sets out to be the most wicked duke’s heir in the world must excel at the art.”

“It wouldn’t be right to simply grab a lady and kiss her.”

“I never grab unless grabbing is explicitly desired.”

“A lady would never desire to be handled so.”

He quirked one eyebrow. “I think you’d be surprised. Even the most decorous of women, when her passions are aroused, can be quite ferocious in her needs.”