Gothic writer covering maiden in fruit (4)
I believe the answer is:
pome
'fruit' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'gothic writer covering maiden' is the wordplay.
'gothic writer' becomes 'Poe' (Edgar Allan Poe).
'covering' indicates putting letters inside.
'maiden' becomes 'm' (cricket abbreviation).
'poe' enclosing 'm' is 'POME'.
'in' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for pome that I've seen is " pear, perhaps".)