Ray heard boy and a maiden live inside (7)

I believe the answer is:

sunbeam

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'ray' is the definition.
(I know that sunbeam is a type of ray)

'heard boy and a maiden live inside' is the wordplay.
'heard' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'boy' becomes 'son' (synonyms).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a maiden live inside' becomes 'beam' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'son' is a homophone of 'sun'.
'sun'+'beam'='SUNBEAM'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for sunbeam that I've seen before include "Ray of solar light" , "sheds a bit of light" , "Bright shaft of daylight" , "Bright ray -- bus name (anag)" , "Ray of natural light" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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