Took a quiet stay — I settled into valued surroundings (12)
I believe the answer is:
appropriated
'took' is the definition.
(appropriating is a kind of taking)
'a quiet stay i settled into valued surroundings' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'quiet' could be 'pp' (music symbol for 'pianissimo') and 'pp' is found in the answer.
'i' could be 'a' and 'a' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for appropriated that I've seen is " Stolen".)