Damnably difficult at first – landlady gutted by what might be said in court (8)

'damnably difficult at first landlady gutted by what might be said in court' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'damnably difficult at first landlady gutted by what might be' is the wordplay.
'damnably' becomes 'deuce' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'at first' says to take the initial letters.
'gutted' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (to gut something is to remove its insides).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'what might be' indicates an anagram.
'landlady' with its middle taken out is 'ly'.
The initial letter of 'difficult' is 'd'.
'd' after 'ly' is 'lyd'.
'lyd' with letters rearranged gives 'dly'.
'deuce'+'dly'='DEUCEDLY'

Can you help me to learn more?