At one in the afternoon, she can possibly have ale (3)
I believe the answer is:
pam
'have ale' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'at one in the afternoon she can' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'one' could be 'a' (a thing is one thing) and 'a' is located in the answer.
'afternoon' could be 'pm' and 'pm' is present in the leftover letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'possibly' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pam that I've seen before include "Female" , "Short girl's name" , "- Ayres, English poet" .)