Quote from Black Beauty - "Beauty's beginning to lead our close associate" (9)
I believe the answer is:
neighbour
'close associate' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'quote from black beauty beauty's beginning to lead our' is the wordplay.
'quote from black beauty' becomes 'neigh' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'beginning to' suggests taking the first letters.
'lead' says to put letters next to each other.
The first letter of 'beautys' is 'b'.
'neigh'+'b'+'our'='NEIGHBOUR'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for neighbour that I've seen before include "someone close" , "Local resident" , "Such a one might help out" , "sit next to" , "Person who lives close by" .)