Mary Rayner had been living with her parents since the death of her husband, James Harold Moloney. One of James Moloney’s friends introduced her to Henry Lyon. She had fallen in love with him and was carrying his child. They would marry in August. Henry was much older than Mary, sixteen years older, in fact. James had only been seven years older, but James died. Henry was a big, strong, Irishman with a wicked grin and a cheeky manner. He made Mary laugh, and she looked forward to his company. She didn’t care that he had been a convict. He got his Certificate of Freedom in 1830, and as far as she was concerned, his convict life was done. After all her own grandparents, on both sides, had been convicts. Her father had frowned when she said she was marrying Henry, but her mother told her it w
