Liam Penland / Leah Kearney

Liam, deadname Leah, was born in Bowling Green Kentucky in 1899, and is 21 when he meets Livia and gets into the alcohol transport and speakeasy defense business.

Liam grew up on a farm with a single parent dad and three younger brothers. Then Leah, he was initially learning to read and write before his mother died giving birth to his youngest brother, at which point his father lost interest in teaching a girl how to do the man's work of running the farm, and started teaching him how to be a good homemaker. Leah rebelled against this strongly, still helping his brothers on the farm and even learning how to shoot, and completing his chores whenever he could find time. However, when Liam turned 21 and the oldest of his youngest brothers was given the deed to the farm, he left with all he owned and hit the street. His father's last words to him were "You're just gonna end up in a brothel in Louisville!" So he ran as far and fast as he could out of the state, cutting his hair off at the edge of his property and binding himself with some bandages he packed, so he could pass as a boy. He had already borrowed a pair of his brother's britches (forever) and wore a shirt instead of the dress he had to wear at the farm, so after that he was pretty passing as a somewhat masculine looking person due to his wide set shoulders and muscular frame from working the farm, in addition to his nose looking bigger and more angular after getting kicked in the face by a sheep when he was younger.

When he meets Livia he falls in love for the first time, having never felt any particular draw to love or lust before he met her, and is smitten. Unfortunately for him, she doesn't know he's a "girl" until he works up the courage to tell her...