Girl trapped shortly in eating area (7)
I believe the answer is:
dinette
'eating area' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'girl trapped shortly' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'di' (**).
'trapped' becomes 'netted' (I've seen this before).
'shortly' means to remove the last letter.
'netted' with its final letter taken off is 'nette'.
'di'+'nette'='DINETTE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for dinette that I've seen before include "somewhere to eat" , "part of kitchen" , "Small room for eating" , "Eating alcove" , "meals alcove" .)