Retired, Edward longed to be free (8)
I believe the answer is:
detached
'be free' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'retired edward longed' is the wordplay.
'retired' says the letters should be written backwards.
'edward' becomes 'ted'.
'longed' becomes 'ached' ('ache' can be a synonym of 'long').
'ted' back-to-front is 'det'.
'det'+'ached'='DETACHED'
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for detached that I've seen before include "free of ties" , "Unconnected" , "isolated" , "Not committed, objective" , "Separate; aloof" .)