The Stinking Great Lie by Catherine Jinks

This books really hooks you in right from the start when you discover that eleven year old Camilla has been offered in marriage to fifty-year old Orazio Busini, who's putrid breath and wife-correcting whip would make any mature woman run a mile, let alone a poor wretched girl who serves in the powerful  Tozzini household run by Bernardo and Alessandra . Camilla is desperate to escape such a fate, and who can blame her for all the lies she so effortlessly spins in order to find some respectable way out. Alessandra is relentless in the persecution of her servant entrusted to her care by Camilla's humble father, a widower and a a urine collector in the walled city of  Lontiano.  Camilla also suffers the full brunt of the jibes of the boys from the rival Marzocca family who have named her "Pisspot."  Battista, one of Bernardo's daughter-in-laws, is her only friend in the household and reluctantly agrees to help her disentangle herself from the marriage agreement. The trouble is that Camilla has invented a saint, San Ugolino, the patron saint of sewerage workers. It seems this saint is proving to be a real hit with many of the townsfolk, and it is not long before Camilla has to confront Father Stefano.

I will now be looking out for more books by Catherine Jinks to add to my bookshelf. I basically read this whilst waiting for the Bruny Island ferry over the busy Easter break.