Kept woman company and kept novice in network (9)

'kept woman' is the definition.
(concubine is a kind of kept woman)

'company and kept novice in network' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'company' could be 'co' (abbreviation) and 'co' is located in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is found in the answer.
'novice' could be 'cub' (cub is a kind of novice) and 'cub' is located in the answer.
'in' is present in the answer.
A single letter 'e' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?