Expected before noon, an upstanding governess (6)
I believe the answer is:
duenna
'governess' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'expected before noon an upstanding' is the wordplay.
'expected' becomes 'due' (I've seen this before).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'noon' becomes 'n'.
'upstanding' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'an' in reverse letter order is 'na'.
'due'+'n'+'na'='DUENNA'
(Other definitions for duenna that I've seen before include "Chaperone in Madrid" , "Female chaperone" , "Governess, chaperone" , "Iberian chaperone" , "governess in Spain" .)