Wait by husband’s manor, keeping child at heart! (8)
I believe the answer is:
hesitate
'wait' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'husband's manor keeping child at heart' is the wordplay.
'husband' becomes 'h'.
'manor' becomes 'estate' (I've seen this in another clue).
'keeping' is an insertion indicator.
'at heart' means to look at the middle letters.
The middle letter of 'child' is 'i'.
'estate' enclosing 'i' is 'esitate'.
'h'+'esitate'='HESITATE'
'by' is the link.
(Other definitions for hesitate that I've seen before include "Be uncertain about decision" , "Pause, waver" , "Be reluctant" , "Dither indecisively" , "He who does it may be lost" .)