Act of retaliation from salesperson beside river with one woman (8)
I believe the answer is:
reprisal
'act of retaliation' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'salesperson beside river with one woman' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'salesperson' could be 'rep' (sales rep) and 'rep' is present in the answer.
'river' could be 'r' (abbreviation) and 'r' is found in the answer.
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is found in the answer.
'woman' could be 'sal' (short for Sally) and 'sal' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'from' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for reprisal that I've seen before include "comeback" , "Retaliatory deed" , "Tit for tat" , "Retaliatory action against an enemy" , "Act of revenge" .)