Male assistant returning note to intervene (7)
I believe the answer is:
mediate
'intervene' is the definition.
(to mediate is to intervene between two parties)
'male assistant returning note' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'male' could be 'ed' (man's name) and 'ed' is located in the answer.
'note' could be 'te' (musical note as in do re mi fa so la ti) and 'te' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'mia' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mediate that I've seen before include "Intercede" , "Conciliate" , "Act as middle man" , "Arbitrate between parties in dispute" , "Umpire has to" .)