I'm thinking (hoping) that the prince is just misleading them with his wording. I still love his "a fun ball appeared in front of the dog" reaction and would prefer he keep that mentality.
As for whether the prince actually meant Serenia, am I the only one that gets the feeling that she is at least 10 years older than the prince & Kylus? I like her with Howen. She already has his name anyway.
Lastly... Valerie's wording there was dangerously close to saying she doesn't want to get married, which Kylus is honor-bound to accept without question. Does anyone know if it's that close on the original too, or is that a context problem in English?