Servant following order to procure books and falling short (7)
I believe the answer is:
footman
'servant' is the definition.
(I know that footman is a type of servant)
'following order to procure books and falling short' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'following' could be 'f' (used when citing page numbers etc) and 'f' is located in the answer.
'order' could be 'o' (abbreviation e.g. in British honours OM, OBE etc.) and 'o' is found within the answer.
'books' could be 'ot' (abbreviation for Old Testament) and 'ot' is found in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'ma' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for footman that I've seen before include "Liveried servant" , "Archaic servant dressed in livery" , "Liveried flunkey" .)