Exclusive group with somewhere to sleep north of lake (7)
I believe the answer is:
coterie
'exclusive group' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'somewhere to sleep north of lake' is the wordplay.
'somewhere to sleep' becomes 'cot'.
'north of' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go above others).
'lake' becomes 'erie' (Lake Erie is one of the Canadian/US 'Great Lakes').
'cot'+'erie'='COTERIE'
'with' is the link.
(Other definitions for coterie that I've seen before include "EEC trio in exclusive group" , "Small exclusive circle with a common purpose" , "Exclusive circle of people with common purpose" , "Group, band" , "Exclusive group with shared interests" .)