Heard a foreign nobleman's stories (8)
I believe the answer is:
accounts
'stories' is the definition.
('account' can be a synonym of 'story')
'heard a foreign nobleman's' is the wordplay.
'heard' becomes 'ac' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a foreign nobleman's' becomes 'counts' (count is an aristocratic title in some countries).
'ac'+'counts'='ACCOUNTS'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for accounts that I've seen before include "Rates" , "Stories" , "Narrative descriptions of events" , "Statements of financial transactions" , "Gives financial reckoning, or explains cause" .)