Crossword Genius

Secretive husband and old, legendary lover pinching ear? (4,3,6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hole and corner

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'secretive' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'husband and old legendary lover pinching ear?' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h' (abbreviation).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'old legendary lover' becomes 'oleander' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'pinching' means one lot of letters goes inside another (taking inside).
'ear?' becomes 'corn' (as in an ear of corn).
'oleander' placed around 'corn' is 'oleandcorner'.
'h'+'oleandcorner'='HOLE-AND-CORNER'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hole and corner that I've seen before include "obscure places?" , "back door" , "Secret" , "Like a spy's role" , "Surreptitious" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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