Pays for beloved to come back for beginning of March? (8)
I believe the answer is:
footstep
'beginning of march?' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?
'pays for beloved to come back' is the wordplay.
'pays for' becomes 'foots' (as in footing the bill).
'beloved' becomes 'pet' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to come back' is a reversal indicator.
'pet' back-to-front is 'tep'.
'foots'+'tep'='FOOTSTEP'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for footstep that I've seen before include "Sound of a step of someone walking" , "Sound of a pace" , "Mark made when walking" , "Sound of walker" .)